Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

[seminolefan]

Brenda Lee's 1958 holiday classic is the new #1 on this week's Hot 100. Glad it could get there while she's still with us.

[rayshae3]

She tops the record for the oldest artist ever at 78-years-old with #1 Hot 100, besting Louis Armstrong who had a #1 in 1964 at 62 (with “Hello, Dolly!").

[dth1971]

Dec 4, 2023 15:29:08 GMT -5 seminolefan said:

Brenda Lee's 1958 holiday classic is the new #1 on this week's Hot 100. Glad it could get there while she's still with us.

Just noticed that feat on the December 4, 2023 broadcast of ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH DAVID MUIR.

Wonder how Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" will fare with other Christmas songs for the December 2023 Billboard Hot 100 month, maybe she may knock Brenda Lee out of #1?

[rayshae3]

It’s still a possibility. For the week in Radio Airplay and downloads Carey slightly fared better. But together it was streaming component of Hot 100 that sent “Rockin’” over the edge, giving Lee her first #1 since 1960.

[jgve1952]

That was a very entertaining clip on the news--she looks great for 78. Interesting after 65 years, that now it reaches #1. She told in the interview with David Muir that the song was recorded in the Summer.

[chrislc]

Dec 5, 2023 8:09:37 GMT -5 jgve1952 said:

That was a very entertaining clip on the news--she looks great for 78. Interesting after 65 years, that now it reaches #1. She told in the interview with David Muir that the song was recorded in the Summer.

It's both interesting and weird. Does it mean overall listening is more accurately tracked than it had been for 65 years? Or current music is so much worse than it had been for 65 years? (well, yes, progressively) Or there is more fragmentation? Or something else?

It is nice though, at least for one week, to see the "Queen of Christmas" dethroned.

[chrislc]

Johnny Marks wrote it. He was born in 1909. BTW he also wrote Holly Jolly Christmas, and what has to be one of the Top Five most known songs in America, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

Is that song as familiar to kids now as it was to kids when I was a kid? Maybe not, but it still must be in the Top Five. I can't think of any better-known, except for Happy Birthday To You.

[rayshae3]

Other caroles in Hot 100’s Top 10 besides Brenda @#1 and Mariah @#2 for the week: #4 Bobby Helms’ Jingle Bell Rock; #5 Wham’s Last Christmas; #6 Burl Ives’ A Holly Jolly Christmas; #10 Andy Williams’ It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. All are (re)climbers.

[mrjukebox]

It was also 65 years ago this month that "The Chipmunk Song" with David Seville & The Chipmunks would reach # 1-We've been enjoying that Yuletide classic ever since.

[jgve1952]

My favorites are "Sleigh Ride" by The Ronettes and "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys.

[dth1971]

Dec 5, 2023 17:07:06 GMT -5 chrislc said:

Johnny Marks wrote it. He was born in 1909. BTW he also wrote Holly Jolly Christmas, and what has to be one of the Top Five most known songs in America, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

Is that song as familiar to kids now as it was to kids when I was a kid? Maybe not, but it still must be in the Top Five. I can't think of any better-known, except for Happy Birthday To You.

Johnny Marks also wrote "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" as well as writing the songs for a little known 1975 animated Christmas special called "The Tiny Tree" (produced by DFE Films and was originally featured on NBC's "Bell System Family Theatre"): www.youtube.com/watch?v=11A7Y1cq0kE

[Michael1973]

It's rather interesting to me that the majority of popular holiday songs on radio continue to be classics from the 1950s-1970s, whereas the rest of the popular music from that era is largely gone from radio because "it's too old."

Sure, there are still some new holiday songs coming out presently, but few of them have the same impact. It makes me wonder what radio in December will sound like in another 40 years. (Probably exactly the same.)

[chrislc]

Dec 6, 2023 7:39:39 GMT -5 dth1971 said:

Dec 5, 2023 17:07:06 GMT -5 chrislc said:

Johnny Marks wrote it. He was born in 1909. BTW he also wrote Holly Jolly Christmas, and what has to be one of the Top Five most known songs in America, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

Is that song as familiar to kids now as it was to kids when I was a kid? Maybe not, but it still must be in the Top Five. I can't think of any better-known, except for Happy Birthday To You.

Johnny Marks also wrote "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" as well as writing the songs for a little known 1975 animated Christmas special called "The Tiny Tree" (produced by DFE Films and was originally featured on NBC's "Bell System Family Theatre"): www.youtube.com/watch?v=11A7Y1cq0kE

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is a beautiful song - heard at 0:55 - I believe this moment has a very emotional impact for many of us who were kids in 1964 and 74 and 84 and 94, etc...but more for those of us who remember being able to experience it only once every year.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAsSK2q9cso

And the moment at 6:59 may have done more to introduce another song than was done even by Brenda Lee herself. This inclusion here is brief, and IMO very subtle. It seems easy to not recognize the song.

[jgve1952]

Dec 5, 2023 8:08:37 GMT -5 rayshae3 said:

It’s still a possibility. For the week in Radio Airplay and downloads Carey slightly fared better. But together it was streaming component of Hot 100 that sent “Rockin’” over the edge, giving Lee her first #1 since 1960.

This would also break the record for the longest time between #1s, as you mentioned, 1960, with "I Want To Be Wanted" on 10-24-60. The previous record was held by the Beach Boys--"Good Vibrations in 1966 and "Kokomo" in 1988.

[rayshae3]

Happy 79th Birthday to Brenda Lee who was born today Dec. 11 in 1944. She also leads the new Hot 100 (the week of 12/16) for the 2nd week with her standard carol, the subject of this thread.