Beech Tree News Network

Welcome to my first Christmas column of the year! This year, we start out with a favorite of many: Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”.  There are a few things you might not know about the Christmas classic.  The iconic Christmas tune was written by Johnny Marks, who had previously penned “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas”.  Despite her adult voice, Brenda Lee recorded the song when she was only 13 years old in 1958.  In a 2019 interview with The Tennessean, Lee recalled 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”.  An astonishing 65 years later, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” has reached #1! Lee is the oldest artist ever to reach #1.  This was her 3rd #1 hit.  To add to the impressive feat, Lee knocked off Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”.  

This Christmas classic has had quite a long life on the charts.  December 12, 1960, was the song’s first chart appearance, ranking at #14.  The following year, on December 11, the song peaked at #50.  December 15, 1962, the song peaked at #59.  The song was off the charts until 2014, when it peaked at #50.  December 26 of the following year, the song peaked at #30.  December 24. 2016, the song peaked at @27.  The next year saw it reach #30.  December 8, 2018, it finally cracked the top 10 at #9.  The next year it almost reached the top spot-it was #2 on December 7.  November 18, 2020, it also reached #2.  December 4, 2021, and November 26, 2022 it was also the #2 song.  This year, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” finally cracked that elusive top spot.  

The song reached over 1 million digital downloads in 2016, according to Neilson SoundScan, making it fifth on the list of all-time best-selling Christmas digital singles in SoundScan history.  It sold 1.170,000 copies in the United States as of December 2019.  On the official UK singles chart, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” peaked at #6 when released in the United Kingdom in 1962.  In 2013, due to downloads, it became one of a number of songs to re-enter the U.K singles charts near Christmastime each holiday season.  The single peaked at #63 on Sunday, December 15, 2023.  In 2017, it reached #9 on the UK singles chart, its highest chart position since 1963.  On the week ending January 5, 2023, the song reached #4, peaking two places higher than its original release 61 years prior.  

I leave you with trivia: do you know what the B-side was? That’d be “Papa Noel”, written by Roy Botkin.  Below are links to my podcast, Blendertainment

https://open.spotify.com/show/61yTPt9wXdz37DZTbPUs16?si=w5jHghPVRmaTaP5ZEI-wzQ

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blendertainment/id1541097172 

The info came from ABC and Wikipedia.