"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958; it has since been recorded by numerous other music artists. By the song's 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee's original version had sold over 15 million copies around the world with the 4th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single. In 2019, Lee's recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In November 2023, Lee released a music video for the song, and in December 2023 the song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking Lee's third number-one single and making Lee the oldest artist ever to top the Hot 100 at age 78, later breaking the record once again one week later at the age of 79. The song also set the record for the longest period of time between an original release and its topping the Hot 100 (65 years), as well as the longest time between number-one singles by an artist: 63 years, one month and two weeks.
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was written by Johnny Marks, who had previously penned "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas". In spite of her adult voice, Lee recorded the song when she was only 13 years old. In a 2019 interview with The Tennessean, Lee recalled that she had no knowledge as to why Marks wanted her specifically to sing it: "I was only 12 , and I had not had a lot of success in records, but for some reason he heard me and wanted me to do it. And I did."
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a rockabilly song. The recording features Hank Garland and Harold Bradley on guitar, Floyd Cramer on piano, Boots Randolph on saxophone, Bob Moore on double bass, and veteran session player Buddy Harman on drums. The Brenda Lee recording is in the key of A-flat major.
An instrumental version of the song appears as background music in the 1964 television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which exclusively featured music written by Johnny Marks. It can be heard in the scene where Rudolph first arrives at the Reindeer Games and meets another reindeer named Fireball. A fully sung version of the song would later appear in Rankin/Bass's 1979 sequel Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July. The song was also used in the 1990 film Home Alone during a scene when Kevin McCallister pretends that there is a holiday party taking place in his house, and discourages the burglars from robbing it. The song was also featured in The Christmas Special episode of Regular Show in 2012. The song was also used in D-TV set to the Disney cartoons, Pluto's Christmas Tree and Mickey's Christmas Carol.
In 1991, Lee rerecorded the song and other standards for A Brenda Lee Christmas, which includes only the rerecording and not the original version.
On November 3, 2023, Lee released a music video for the song, consisting of the 78-year-old Lee lip synching to the original recording of her 13-year-old voice at a party that includes Trisha Yearwood and fellow former teenage country music star Tanya Tucker.
In October 2024, Universal Music Group released “Noche Buena y Navidad,” a Spanish adaptation of the song that features an AI version of Lee’s vocals. Rewritten in Spanish and produced by producer/songwriter Auero Baqueiro, the goal was to make it sound like 13-year old Lee was singing the song in Spanish. The new version uses a plug-in from AI music tech company SoundLabs. To create “Noche Buena y Navidad,” after rewriting the song, Baquiero brought in Chilean vocalist Leyla Hoyle to record a Spanish language guide track while mimicking the pitch and phrasings of the original. The vocal stems were then sent to SoundLabs, which ran the vocals through its “Brenda Lee” AI vocal model that was trained on hours of the singer’s isolated vocal stems, including the original “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” Baquiero then mixed the new isolated AI-generated vocal into the original music elements of the track. The project was completed with a full sign-on from Lee, who is now 79 years old. “Throughout my career, I performed and recorded many songs in different languages, but I never recorded ‘Rockin’ in Spanish, which I would have loved to do,” Lee said in a press release. “To have this out now is pretty incredible, and I’m happy to introduce the song to fans in a new way.”
Although Decca released the single in both 1958 and again in 1959, it did not sell well until Lee became a popular star in 1960. That Christmas holiday season, Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" placed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time, eventually peaking at No. 14. It continued to sell well during subsequent holiday seasons, peaking as high as No. 3 on Billboard's Christmas Singles chart in December 1965. Lee said, "It was magic, and I think we all knew it. It took a few years to take off, but once it did, it really did."
The song experienced a large resurgence in popularity due to its use in the film Home Alone in 1990. Lee recalled, "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."
Lee's 1958 recording still receives a great deal of airplay, as radio station formats ranging from top 40 to adult contemporary to country music to oldies to even adult standards have played this version. It has since turned into a perennial holiday favorite, and due to rule changes in 2014 has returned annually to the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching No. 2 in the 2019 holiday season and returning to that runner-up position each of the following three years (for a total of nine nonconsecutive weeks at No. 2). In December 2023, the song finally reached No. 1. By attaining the Hot 100's top spot 65 years after its original release, the song broke the record for the longest amount of time for a single to make the number-one position. It was also only the third time in the over six-decade history of the Hot 100 chart that a Christmas/holiday song reached No. 1 (following "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" by David Seville and The Chipmunks in December 1958, and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey in December 2019). With the achievement and her celebrating her 79th birthday at the same time, Lee also became the senior-most recording artist to top the Hot 100 chart, surpassing Louis Armstrong, who was 62 years old when "Hello, Dolly!" led the chart in early May 1964. Among female recording artists, Lee also passed the previous record held by Cher, who was 52 years old when "Believe" ruled the Hot 100 chart in March 1999. Making even more history, Lee set a new record for the longest break between number-one singles on the Hot 100 chart: 63 years, one month, and two weeks between "I Want to Be Wanted" making No. 1 on the week ending October 24, 1960, and the ascent of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" to the top.
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" reached over one million in digital downloads by 2016 according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it fifth on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas/holiday digital singles in SoundScan history. The song has sold 1,170,000 copies in the United States as of December 2019. On December 9, 2024, the Recording Industry Association of America certified "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" 7× Platinum for US sales of 7 million copies of the digital single.
On the official UK Singles Chart, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" peaked at No. 6 when it was released in the United Kingdom in 1962. In 2013, due to downloads, it became one of a number of songs to re-enter the UK Singles Chart near Christmastime each holiday season. The single peaked at No. 63 on Sunday, December 15, 2013. Then in 2017, it reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart, its highest chart position since 1963. On the week ending January 5, 2023, the song reached No. 4, peaking two places higher than its original release 61 years prior.
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