Brenda Lee, Queen of Christmas and much more

“She is living proof of how important you are and how long you can last if you are talented, work hard, and truly love people,” country singer Tanya Tucker said in an email. Lee Tucker was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October, and people still talk about the dry delivery and killer comic timing of her speech. Tucker added that Lee had “the best sense of humor ever known to man (or woman).”

For the past four years, “Rockin'” has peaked at No. 2, but in honor of its 65th anniversary, Lee’s label is giving the song an extra boost, including a new music video that features Lee lip-syncing to the melody she’s singing. It was recorded as a teenager, and even a Tik Tok account. It seems like only one woman and her whistle are standing in the way of this decades-old song reaching #1.

“Now I have to worry about Maria,” he told me with an angry laugh. “Get out of here girl!” “Oh, there’s room for everyone,” she added, getting more serious. Her song is good too. I love Sing it.”

Lee and Carey have never met, but they certainly have a lot to talk about — like the feeling of having a pioneering, history-making career reduced in the popular imagination to a seasonal novelty. Because even though Brenda Lee is the Queen of Christmas, she’s also so much more.

a lot of people You have stories. Brenda Lee has stories. She first met Elvis Presley in 1957 (“He was… Beautiful “Elvis Then”) when she was 12, the night she made her Grand Ole Opry debut; He was watching in the wings. “I’ve never been more impressed by anyone, and I’ve met the biggest one,” she said. “But I was tongue-tied when I met him.”

Patsy Cline was her first tour partner and mentor (“a good old man, in the nicest sense of the word”). While still a teenager, Lee shared bills with Little Richard, Chubby Checker, and Dusty Springfield – the list seems endless. In 1962, at the height of their international popularity, while on tour in Hamburg, The Beatles opened for Ha. “They were raw musically, but they were great,” she said. The admiration was mutual: years later, in an interview with Rolling Stone, John Lennon declared that Lee “had the greatest rock ‘n’ roll voice ever.”