At a time when music was changing and becoming something other than a beat to set the tone of a party, Brenda Lee, who grew up in Augusta, rose to the top of the charts at the age of 13.
The diminutive performer would go on to share the Grand ‘Ole Opry stage with Elvis Presley, had the Beatles as her opening act and has garnered numerous awards over a career that has spanned 70 plus years.
Strangely enough, while her signature hit, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” has hit the charts every year since its 1960 release, it finally toppled Mariah Carey and Wham! to reach number one for the first time in 2023.
Lee recalled in her official bio that she grew up in poverty Augusta. Her mother toiled away in one of the cotton mills, while her father was a carpenter who was always looking for work.
Even though money was tight in the household, her parents still found time to dote on her. After all, she was somewhat of a “miracle baby.”
Lee was born extremely premature and credits the staff at the charity ward at Grady Hospital in Atlanta for nurturing the 4 pounds 11 ounces new arrival.
“Back then, they didn’t have everything they have now. If a baby had breathing problems, normally it didn’t make it, but I was born in Grady Hospital, and I’m here, so they did something right,” Lee is quoted as saying.
As a toddler in Augusta, Lee remembered her mother taking her to one of the local candy stores downtown, where she would sit on the counter and sing for the customers. Most people credit her breakthrough as happening in Atlanta, but she really got her start, meeting record industry people, right here in her hometown.
In the early 1950s, Charles “Peanut” Faircloth was Augusta’s number one radio personality, with his show airing on WRDW-AM, and also hosted a show at the Bell Auditorium, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
Faircloth may be most well known for bringing Elvis Presley to the Bell, but he was also the one who introduced Lee to the world, cajoling national acts into letting the little girl sing a song or two as a local opening act, where the crowds would be blown away that such a huge voice could come from such a tiny girl.
Long before James Brown would add “Mr. Dynamite” to his list of titles, Lee was known as “Little Miss Dynamite.”
Faircloth would introduce Lee to Country music sensation Red Foley, and from there came offers to appear on The Perry Como Show, The Steve Allen Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Once national producers heard Lee, they thought they had solved a problem. New acts such as Elvis along with contemporaries Little Richard and Buddy Holly had a tough time breaking through on mainstream radio as the music was considered “race” music; but Lee was an innocent little White girl, and a prodigy, at that.
Ironically, “Rockin’” as she refers to it, was not Lee’s breakthrough song, even though it was written by Johnny Marks, who is also known for the hit songs “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” In fact, Marks wrote “Rockin’” specifically for Lee, but it was not a hit when it was recorded in 1958.
It was in 1960, after Lee’s other signature song “Sorry” broke number one that the record company released the Christmas classic, leaving Lee anything but “sorry.”
…And that is something you may not have known.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter, Editorial Page Editor and weekly columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
