CHRISTMAS | MUSIC Her memories of recording "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" are a little hazy. She remembers the producer placing decorations around the studio and blasting the air conditioner on a warm Nashville day to create a holiday spirit. The musicians, she recalls, nailed it in a couple of takes.
That's about it. After all, Brenda Lee was 13 years old at the time — and it was 66 years ago, in 1958. Somewhat implausibly, her celebration of a "Christmas party hop" is more popular today than ever before.
It eclipsed Mariah Carey's perennial favorite "All I Want for Christmas is You" last December to top the Billboard music chart and make Lee, at age 78, the oldest woman to achieve that feat. A week later, following a birthday, she beat her own mark. She turns 80 this month.
Another record: Sixty-five years represented the longest interval between a record being released and making it to No. 1. People are also reading.
.. "It is a good song," Lee said.
"It's a song that anybody can sing. You can join in, you can sing it, everyone is happy. I sure am glad that I have it.
I never thought in my life that a Christmas song would be my legacy. But I'll take it." 'An earworm on steroids' It's a phenomenon that music journalist Holly Gleason noticed recently while stopping for coffee in Florida.
The song came over the loudspeaker and the room — parents, kids, hipsters — erupted in singing and laughter. "It's kind of an earworm on steroids," said Gleason, whose 2017 book ".
