Seventy-eight-year-old singer Brenda Lee just found out that her classic Christmas song, one made extremely famous by a scene in “Home Alone,” just topped the Billboard charts for the first time since it was released six and a half decades ago. That song, of course, is “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
The third Christmas song in history to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts, following “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey and “The Chipmunk Song” by the Chipmunks, “Rockin'” managed to make it to the top thanks in part to the Christmas season returning and in part thanks to a new music video that Lee released for the song, helping drive interest in it.
“Rockin'” was written by Johnny Marks in 1958, the same year that Lee released it. She was just 13 years old at the time of its release. It did well in the years following its debut and claimed up to number 14 on the Billboard 100 in 1960, but wasn’t able to keep climbing and make it to the number one spot. From there it was a long time until it was back on the Billboard chart, making it on again in 2019 and 2022 but unable to breach the number two spot.
Well, it finally made it to the number one spot this year, and Billboard released a sweet video of Lee learning about her famous song’s success. Posting the video to Instagram, Billboard captioned it by saying, “A message from @officialbrendalee to her Brendanators ❤️ Watch the exact moment @umgnashville CEO Cindy Mabe tells the holiday music icon that “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” reaches No. 1 on this week’s #Hot100, breaking multiple @billboardcharts records along the way. Tap the link in bio for a breakdown of the feat.” Watch her find out here:
Commenting on the video, people left their messages of congratulation for Lee, helping her celebrate the success that took decades to come about. One commenter, for example, said, “Congratulations, Ms. Brenda, on your recognition for your beautiful song that we ALL love. We are happy for you! You deserve! This is not a dispute, as you have been in this industry long before everyone else. ❤️🎄“
Others added things like “This is so beautiful ❤️ She deserves this and I’m so happy. One of my favorite Christmas songs!!” and “Your deserve it Brenda Lee … you are one of the MOST talented and thrilling singing stars of ALL time ♥️”
In a 2019 interview about “Rockin,'” Lee said that she found out how popular the song was when she was told it was in “Home Alone,” saying, “Somebody called me and said, “Have you seen the movie Home Alone? You ought to, because they’ve got ‘Rockin” really featured in it.” That’s when it really took off with the youngsters. I knew it was special, but you never know what’s going to be a hit — if you did, we’d all have hits every day. It has been a wonderful gift.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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