Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

Year: 1958

Written By: Johnny Marks

• Lyrics
• Leave a comment

Johnny Marks wrote 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree'. This Christmas song was recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958. It was recorded on Decca 9-30776. Brenda Lee gives an outstanding vocal performance, yet astoundingly, Brenda Lee recorded this song when she was just thirteen years old. When released, 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' was released as an A Side, with its B Side being 'Papa Noël'.

Decca attempted to release 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' in 1958, and then again in 1959 however, on these two occasions, they were not particularly successful, selling poorly until Brenda Lee was to become a popular star in 1960. After Brenda Lee's popularity and recognition rose, so did the success of this Christmas recording, managing to peak at number fourteen in the Billboard pop chart of 1960. This classic continued to sell well, eventuallty reaching number five in Christmas chart. This success turned 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' from a relatively unknown and unsuccessful song in to an extremely popular and now perennial holiday favourite. An example of how this song has become a holiday favourite, is that Brenda Lee's recording still manages to receive a great deal of airplay even to this date.

Although the title of this Christmas song gives an indication that this song is a rock song and only fits in to the rock genre, the actual instrumentation of the song allows for the song to also manage to fit in to the Country genre. This genre is one in which Brenda Lee is most associated with and after the success of this song, Brenda Lee went on to fully embrace this genre as her career continued to evolve. 
Kim Wilde and Mel Smith produced a very popular cover version of the song in 1987. The Christmas cover was credited interestingly as "Mel & Kim" which was as a parody of the sister act Mel and Kim who were extremely popular at that time. This cover features Pete Thomas. The Christmas song had great success, managing to achieve a peak position of number three on the UK Singles Chart in the 1087 Christmas period. Kim Wilde and Mel Smith did the song for a charitable cause, which was to raise funds for Comic Relief.

Bob Rivers produced his own parody of 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree'. Bob Rivers' parody was instead entitled differently, it was instead called 'Shoppin' Around for a Christmas Tree'. Rivers released the parody in 2002, and it was released on his White Trash Christmas album in 2002.