New old-fashioned hit “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” reaches No. 1
The perennial Yuletide hit finally topped Billboard's Hot 100
Aux News Whitney Huston
Originally released in 1958, when its singer was but 14, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” has appeared in many interesting places. From Rankin/Bass holiday specials to the shower of Home Alone’s cheapskate Uncle Frank, Brenda Lee’s immortal holiday hit has endured long enough to reach retirement age. Sadly, like many of us, the song will never retire, but at least it’s finally getting a little recognition. Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” has reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
It’s a long time coming. Following in the footsteps of “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which finally hit the top spot last year, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” languished at No. 2 for years, spending a total of nine weeks in second place between 2019 and 2022. While it was charting better than Justin Beiber’s cover of the song, it still had higher to climb. Now the song is the third Christmas song ever to reach No. 1, following the obvious holiday dominator “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and “The Chipmunk Song.”
As for why a 65-year-old song can appear on something called the “Hot 100,” in 2012, following the death of Whitney Huston, Billboard changed its rules to allow recurrent songs to enter the top 100. By adding streaming to the mix over the next decade, songs like Carey’s Christmas hit could finally hit No. 1 and so could Lee’s.
Brenda Lee wasn’t the only holiday bop rocketing up the charts. Bobby Helm’s “Jingle Bell Rock” landed at No. 4, Wham!’s “Last Christmas “Last Christmas” hit No. 5, Burl Ives’s “Holly Jolly Christmas” at No. 6, and Andy Williams’s “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” at No. 10.
Lee’s camp seemed especially focused on reaching the top spot this year. The singer spent the last few months hyping her track, releasing a brand new music video for the song, and joining TikTok. It paid off. The song has broken a number of Billboard records, including the longest run to No. 1 and the longest break between No. 1 hits. Ironically, it was Carey’s hit that held the longest run record before Lee. We can only assume Carey is responding to the news with a classic “I don’t know her.”
15 Comments
“Sadly, like many of us, the song will never retire…”
What kind of weird, backhanded compliment is that? I get the analogy you were going for, but you pretty much diss the song by using it.
Brenda Lee is very sweet. I loved her telling stories about knowing Patsy Cline in Ken Burns County Music.
HOUSTON. Whitney HOUSTON. Fucks sake…
Of course it’s popular. We are solidly in the 1950s again. Not economically, unfortunately.
Christmas music gives me the pip. What he did to Rachel Evan Wood and Taylor Momsen are horrible and I can’t stand him, but I wish stores would play Marilyn Manson songs from Thanksgiving to New Years.
If you have the original 45 rpm single of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, flip it over for another gem:
From Rankin/Bass holiday specials to the shower of Home Alone’s cheapskate Uncle FrankKevin played “Rockin Around the Christmas Tree” during his fake holiday party to fool Harry and Marv. “Cool Jerk” is the song his Uncle Frank sang along to in the shower.
Yeah, that really threw me as well. I don’t know how anyone can watch Home Alone and forget this scene, which is a marvelous capsule of the sheer ridiculousness of the movie:The Rankin/Bass mention is a bit odd as well, since they did use the song, but it was performed by Shelby Flint in their multiversal movie Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July:
The thing that surprises me most about all of this is that Brenda Lee isn’t even 80 years old yet. She sounded 80 when she was 14.
Not hearing it. For a long time, I though that song was sung by pre-puberty Wayne Newton.
Maybe it’s just the recording quality/production choices that make it sound like it’s about 120 years old to me.
Ok, the video is cute, but I would love to see how it plays swapped out with some Twin Peaks music. It’s very Lynchian..
If YouTube comments have taught me anything, it’s that I have to say that this is REAL music, back before that autotune shit was on everything! That should net me a couple of hundred replies, at least a thousand likes, and one person complaining about Obama.
Ah, but what if their complaints about Obama are auto-tuned?
At the risk of sounding hopelessly square and plebeian, I actually like Lee’s recording; it’s just an unpretentious ditty of people having fun, and it’s over in two minutes. Pretty much the platonic ideal of a secular Christmas song.