ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Brenda Lee

(b Dec. 11, 1944 )

Career Highlights

Barn Dance Affiliate: Ozarj Jubilee

Grand Ole Opry Member

Stage Name: Little Miss Dynamite

Film, Night Club, Radio & TV

• AustinCity Limits, 4
• Ed Sullivan Show, 4
• Ernest Tubb’s  Midnight Jamboree, 3
• Hee Haw, 4
• NashvilleNow, 4
• Pop Goes the Country, 4
• The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, 4
• The Jimmy Dean Show, 4
• The Johnny Cash Show, 4
• The Porter Wagoner Show, 4
• The Statler Brothers Show, 4
• The Tonight Show, 4

1-Film, 2-Night Club, 3-Radio, 4-TV 

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 0
• Top-10 Singles: 9
• Crossover Singles: 0
• Charted Singles: 34
• Chart Years Active: (1957-1985)

Awards

Country Music Association

• Country Music Hall of Fame (1997)

Career Label:

Billboard Top-10 Singles

1. Nobody Wins -1973
2. Sunday Sunrise -1974
3. Wrong Ideas
4. Big Four Poster Bed#
5. Rock On Baby
6. He's My Rock -1975
7. Tell Me What It's Like -1979
8. The Cowgirl and the Dandy -1980
9. Broken Trust, 1

*-Biggest Chart Single

1-Oak Ridge Boys (backing vocals)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rockin' Around the Christmass Tree: The Brenda Lee Story

Known as Little Miss Dynamite, Brenda Lee, who stood all of four feet, nine inches tall was blessed with a powerful voice that belied her size. Ms. Lee could sing rockabilly, country and pop standards with equal conviction and her versatility as an interpreter has allowed her a career of extraordinary longevity. Her 1958 recording of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree has become a standard that’s heard every year and is placed at No. 4 on the all-time list of popular seasonal records.

Brenda Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Her vocal skills were evident early on, as she won her first talent contest at age five. Ms. Lee performed on a local radio show and at seven became a regular on a Saturday-afternoon TV show. Soon after, she began performing for money, which her family desperately needed after the untimely 1953 death of her father in a construction accident.

In 1956, Brenda Lee auditioned for country singer Red Foley and wound up joining the cast of Ozark Jubilee, a Missouri-based country-music TV show. That May, she signed to Decca Records, inaugurating a prolific and hit-filled recording career. Her third single, One Step at a Time, was her first to chart, reaching No. 15 on the country chart. Her major breakthrough and the biggest hit of her career, was I’m Sorry, which launched a string of ballads that did quite well for her in the early-1960s.

Lee’s career has been remarkable for its constancy. From 1958 to 1976, she recorded almost exclusively with producer Owen Bradley at his studio in Nashville, Tennessee (TN). Lee would cut country, rockabilly and pop material, claiming it all as her own. Moreover, she signed with Decca and remained on the label for nearly thirty years.

Lee achieved her biggest success on the pop charts in the late 1950s through the mid-1960s with rockabilly and rock and roll-styled songs. Her biggest hits included Jambalaya, Sweet Nothin's (No. 4, written by country musician Ronnie Self), I Want to Be Wanted (No. 1), All Alone Am I (No. 3) and Fool #1 (No. 3).

Lee had more hits with the more pop-based songs That's All You Gotta Do (No. 6), Emotions (No. 7), You Can Depend on Me (No. 6), Dum Dum (No. 4), 1962's Break It to Me Gently (No. 2), Everybody Loves Me But You (No. 6) and As Usual (No. 12). Lee's total of nine consecutive top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits from That's All You Gotta Do in 1960 through All Alone Am I in 1962 set a record for a female solo artist.

During the early 1970s, Lee re-established herself as a country music artist and earned a string of top-10 hits on the country charts. The first was 1973's Nobody Wins, which reached the top-5 that spring. The follow-up, Sunday Sunrise, reached No. 6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart that October. Other major hits included Wrong Ideas and Big Four Poster Bed (1974) and Rock On Baby and He's My Rock (both 1975).

After a few years of minor hits, Lee began another run at the top ten with 1979's Tell Me What It's Like. Two follow-ups also reached the top-10 in 1980: The Cowboy and the Dandy and Broken Trust. A 1982 album, The Winning Hand, featuring Lee along with Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, was a surprise hit, reaching the top-10 on the U.S. country albums chart. Her last well-known hit was 1985's Hallelujah, I Love Her So, a duet with George Jones.

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Researched, written and compiled by Richard Bell. Roots of Country Music. Oct., 15, 2011.