RAMBLIN; ROUND: Brenda Lee, 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' and some holiday magic

Dec. 10—Ah, it's that time of year again, when somewhere chestnuts are roasting over an open fire, jingle bells are jingling and Christmas songs by classic artists are shaking up the Hot 100 chart.

Of course, the biggest news chart-wise over the past week has been Brenda Lee hitting the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with her perennial holiday hit, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

It finally topped the charts this week — 65 years after Lee recorded the song as a husky-voiced 13-year-old in 1958.

Lee has the #1 spot for this week not only among Christmas songs, but for all the Hot 100.

That's right. Move over Taylor Swift. Step aside Doja Cat. Wait your turn, Mariah Carey. Brenda Lee has the #1 song in the United States across all genres.

In achieving the top spot, Lee has broken all sorts of records. A couple of them include the longest time between #1 records at 63 years and, at the age of 78, becoming the oldest artist to hit the #1 spot — with the feisty Lee still exuding an exuberant energy whenever she steps onstage.

That was evident Thursday night when Lee took the stage of the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville during the NBC presentation of "Christmas at the Opry."

The two-hour special, featuring Wynonna as emcee as well as a performer, along with other musical artists, including Kelly Clarkson and Trace Adkins.

I'd already missed much of the two-hour program when I switched it on with about 20 minutes remaining. I'd known Brenda Lee was among the scheduled guests and I anticipated she would perform her signature Christmas song, but I figured I'd already missed it.

Oh well, at least I'd hopefully see a few artists perform and catch the program's grand finale, whatever that might be.

I caught Wynonna performing "Oh, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem," backed by an acoustic string band. I also caught Adkins and his version of "White Christmas."

Checking out the clock, I figured there was time for one more song before the program ended. I still felt disappointed that I'd probably tuned into the program too late to catch Brenda Lee's performance, but I figured I'd stick around and see what the final song would be.

But what! Wait! Who is that diminutive figure strolling out onstage in a bright red gown? What are those familiar musical notes I'm hearing?

Can it be? Yes it can! Brenda Lee and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" had been selected for the two hour holiday special's finale.

Backed by a nine-piece band and a background vocal trio, Lee had the entire audience on their feet, cheering and clapping.

She had released the first-ever video of the song this year. Lee is joined on the song's video by country music friends Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker — who like Lee, was a child star who scored her first hit at the age of 12 with "Delta Dawn

In the new "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" video, Lee is shown lip syncing to her 13 year old voice on the original recording.

This Thursday night performance on "Christmas at the Opry" though, obviously featured Lee singing the song live in her current fine voice as she belted out the opening lines: "Rockin' around the Christmas tree at the Christmas party hop."

Feisty and obviously having fun, Lee saunters across the stage, even directing the audience to sing out the "Deck the halls with boughs of holly" part of the chorus.

During the song's saxophone solo, excitement builds as all of the other performers walk out onstage to join Lee for the rest of the song.

Wynonna even thoughtfully lowers her own microphone so as not to overpower Lee — although that wouldn't be an easy thing to do, even for Wynonna Judd.

As the songs ends, Lee sings the final lines "Everyone dancin' merrily in a new old-fashioned way," extending the word "way" for a few more measures to end the rendition on a grand scale.

She ends the song with an emphatic fist pump, to yet another rousing ovation.

Lee performed an amazing feat in topping the Hot 100 with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" 65 years after she recorded the song in 1958.

A lot of elements came together to keep the song sounding fresh today in that "new old-fashioned way."

It was produced by Owen Bradley, who would go on to produce Lee's two #1 hits in 1960, "I'm Sorry" and "I Want to Be Wanted."

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" features a group of ace Nashville studio musicians on the original recording— several of whom would score hits of their own. That's Hank Garland on the prominent electric lead guitar. If the sound is familiar, Garland also played the prominent guitar part on Bobby Helms holiday classic, "Jingle Bell Rock." Also produced by Owen Bradley, "Jingle Bell Rock is #4 on this week's Hot 100 chart.

Garland scored his hit as a teenager 11 years before he played lead guitar of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." In 1949, when he was 18, Garland's instrumental recording of "Sugarfoot Rag" sold more than a million copies. He also played distinctive lead guitar parts on a number of Elvis Presley's recordings, including "A Fool Such As I" and "Little Sister."

As for that memorable saxophone solo on "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," it's played by Boots Randolph, who scored a #35 hit of his own in 1963, with his instrumental "Yakety Sax." He also played sax on Presley's hit recording "Return to Sender."

The piano on "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is played by Floyd Cramer of the renowned triplet style, who would have his own #2 hit in 1960, with "Last Date." Cramer had also played the distinctive piano part on Presley's first #1 hit "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956.

Add that to the fact that songwriter Johnny Marks told Lee he wrote the song specifically for her. Marks had a bit of a track record, since he also wrote "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the Burl Ives song, "Holly Jolly Christmas" — which is #6 on the Hot 100 this week.

Although Decca records first released "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in 1958, then rereleased it in 1959, it didn't see significant chart action until its third release in 1960 — when Lee achieved her breakthrough to mass popularity with those two #1 singles.

That year it peaked at #14 — its highest chart position until 2019 — where it peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 during the Christmas holiday season.

It's peaked at #2 every year since — stuck behind Mariah Carey in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, with Carey holding down the #1 spot with her modern-day classic, "All I Want For Christmas Is You."

This year, with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" celebrating its 65th anniversary, Lee's label made a major promotional push to hit #1 — including the making of the song's first-ever video with Lee, Yearwood and Tucker.

It obviously paid off. There's even another video this week showing Lee's reaction when she learns her song hit #1.

It brought her to tears — and it's bound to give her fans a sentimental feeling when they watch it.

Lee gives credit for part of the song's continuing success to the 1990 movie "Home Alone" — where the song is playing when then-child actor Macaulay Culkin rigs up a group of mannequins to try and fool burglars portrayed by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern into thinking there's a party going on in the empty house.

I thought it amazing that Lee and her performance of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" had been selected as the grand finale of the "Christmas at the Opry" television program that aired Thursday night during the very week the song hit #1.

Wait a minute! That program had not been billed as a live telecast. It had likely been prerecorded, but how long in advance? Maybe the taping had been earlier this week, when Lee hit her history-making milestone.

I did some checking. Nope, "Christmas at the Opry" had been prerecorded on Oct. 3 — when the program producers had no way of knowing that "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" would hit the #1 spot this week, a couple of months later.

Still, they chose Lee and her song for the grand finale.

Call it what you will. Kismet? Synchronicity?

Or maybe it's a bit of Christmas magic.