In October 1958, 13-year-old wunderkind Brenda Lee entered the recording studio to record a new song by Johnny Marks, the songwriter behind "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," called "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" that her and her producer, Owen Bradley, felt had a lot of potential. Lee, who had already earned the nickname, "Little Dynamite," belted out the lyrics, "Rockin' around the Christmas tree/At the Christmas party hop/Mistletoe hung where you can see/Every couple tries to stop" while the band rocked on around her and created one of the biggest, most indelible, holiday songs of all time. "It was just one of those magical moments in the studio when everything came together," Lee remembered. "The sax solo, the little guitar lick that's in there. Everything just sort of fell into place."
Surprisingly, when originally released the following month as her second Christmas single, backed with the Cajun-flavored holiday tune, "Papa Noel," the song failed to make a dent in the charts. It was déjà vu all over again the following year too, but in 1960 when Lee's teenage anthem of unrequited love, "I'm Sorry," became a #1 smash hit, Decca Records reissued "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" and the song turned into a #14 hit. Over the last six decades the timeless song has become a perennial holiday favorite around the globe with continual airplay and streaming and has sold more than 36 million copies with the 5th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single. It has been featured in several movies including an iconic scene in the hit movie, "Home Alone." Since 2014 "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" has returned annually to the Billboard Hot 100 chart and last year as it turned 60, it reached an all-time chart peak of #9 during the holiday season.