Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley, known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Primarily performing rockabilly, pop, country, and Christmas music, she achieved her first Billboard hit at age 12 in 1957, and was given the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite". Some of Lee's most successful songs include "Sweet Nothin's", "I'm Sorry", "I Want to Be Wanted", "Speak to Me Pretty", "All Alone Am I", and "Losing You". Her festive song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", recorded in 1958, topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, making Lee the oldest artist ever to top the chart and breaking several chart records.
Having sold over 100 million records globally, Lee is one of the most successful American artists of the 20th century. Lee was the second woman ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 when her song “I'm Sorry” reached number one in 1960. Her U.S. success in the 1960s earned her recognition as Billboard Top Female Artist of the Decade and one of the four artists who charted the most singles, behind Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Ray Charles. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, four NARM Awards, three NME Awards, and five Edison Awards. In 2023, she was named by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest singers of all time.
Early life
Brenda Mae Tarpley was born on December 11, 1944, at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the second of four children born to Annie Grayce Yarbrough and Ruben Lindsey Tarpley. Her father served in the United States Army for 11 years and then worked various labor jobs, including carpentry, factory work, and construction. Her mother also found factory work in cotton mills. When Tarpley was born, she was one month premature and weighed four pounds, 11 ounces. She was given the name Brenda by her mother and was nicknamed "Bootie Mae" by her father.The family rented various three-room homes around the Metro Atlanta area as Ruben found carpentry work and survived on roughly $20 per week. After Ruben broke his arm in 1951, he was temporarily unemployed and the family lived on a tenant farm in Conyers, Georgia. Tarpley then attended Conyers Elementary School in 1951. After Ruben's recovery, the family moved to a clapboard house in Lithonia, Georgia, where Tarpley slept on one bed with her siblings. Most of her childhood toys were made by her father and her grandmother made many of her dresses.
Tarpley began singing along to the radio as early as eight months old and won her first talent contest at age five singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". She then entered a talent contest at Conyers Elementary School where she sang "Too Young" and "Slow Poke", but ultimately lost to an 18-month-old. She continued entering talent shows singing songs by Hank Williams and Peggy Lee. In 1952, she appeared at the Sports Arena venue in Atlanta with the Wranglers and debuted on local television the same year on Atlanta's TV Ranch singing Williams's "Hey, Good Lookin'".
In 1953, Tarpley's father was working a construction job when a hammer fell off a scaffold and struck him on the head. Knocked unconscious, he was brought to a hospital, where doctors performed brain surgery. He died shortly afterward and the family was left "penniless", leaving Tarpley to help provide for the family through her singing gigs. Without a car, they traveled by bus from Lithonia to Atlanta on a weekly basis so Tarpley could perform. A local television producer during this time suggested a stage name because "Brenda Tarpley" was hard to remember. Soon she adopted the stage name "Brenda Lee". Her mother then remarried and her family briefly moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Augusta, Georgia. In Augusta, she attended North Augusta Elementary School and junior high school. Her stepfather became her manager in 1955 and booked shows around the Atlanta area.
Career
1955–1958: National TV exposure and early rock recordings
Lee's breakthrough came in February 1955, when she turned down $30 to appear on a Georgia radio station to see Red Foley and a touring promotional unit of his ABC-TV program Ozark Jubilee in Augusta. An Augusta disc jockey persuaded Foley to hear her sing before the show. Foley did and agreed to let her perform "Jambalaya " on stage that night. At age 11, Foley signed her as a regular cast member of the Ozark Jubilee in 1956. Lee and her mother then traveled by bus to Springfield, Missouri, where she made her debut on the program, singing Williams's "Jambalaya." Lee's new manager, Lou Black, and her stepfather attempted to get her a recording contract, but were turned down by every label. According to Lee, many companies were hesitant about signing a child performer. Foley then coaxed his Nashville record label to watch Lee perform. Lee was then signed by his company, Decca Records, in May 1956.Despite being 11 years old, Decca issued her debut single, "Jambalaya ", under the title Little Brenda Lee. Decca's second single also featured Lee billed under that title. Both the A-side and B-side were novelty Christmas tunes: "I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus" and "Christy Christmas". Her initial releases identified Lee with the rock and roll market. During this time, her Ozark Jubilee performances were seen by New York columnist Jack O'Brien, who wrote an article about her. That led to Lee being booked on The Perry Como Show, The Steve Allen Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. After a performance at the Nashville Disc Jockey Convention, Lou Black died of a heart attack. She was connected to Dub Albritten, who became her personal manager the same year and remained in that position for many years. Among the first gigs Albritten booked for Lee was at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in December 1956.
Lee then went to New York City to record her third Decca release with producer Milt Gabler, "One Step at a Time". Released in 1957, it became her first US charting single, rising to number 43 on the Hot 100 and number 15 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Its followup, "Dynamite", rose to number 72 on the US Hot 100 and gave her the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite". Lee also credited Steve Allen for the nickname after he said it on the air in 1956. With her new success, Lee brought in an annual income of $36,000, but according to Lee, the money could not be accessed by her mother because Tennessee state law protected child entertainers. The family went before a court judge and was appointed a legal guardian named Charlie Mosley. The judge granted her family a $75 allowance while the remaining amount went into a trust fund that Lee could not access until age 21.
Lee then was booked for a series of rock and roll package tours in 1957, in which she performed alongside Ricky Nelson, Bill Haley & His Comets, George Hamilton IV, and Patsy Cline. Merry Christmas! In 1958, Lee's production was taken over by Owen Bradley, who served in the role over the next 10 years. The same year and at age 13, she recorded a new Christmas tune called "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", which eventually became a top-15 US single in 1960.
1959–1963: Rock and pop music breakthrough
Despite Lee's popularity with teen audiences through rock and roll, Albritten believed the music was a "fad" and morphed her style toward pop. He brought Lee to France in 1959 after noticing her records' popularity there, and billed her with French pop performer Gilbert Becaud. According to Lee, Albritten tried to generate hype about her visit by telling French press that she was a "32-year-old midget". Despite the unwarranted press, Lee recalled her French shows as a success with audiences. The same year, Lee's recording of "Let's Jump the Broomstick" reached the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart. She returned to Nashville that summer to record the rock and roll tune "Sweet Nothin's" with Owen Bradley. The song became her first top-10 single in the US and the UK, peaking at number four in both countries.In 1960, Albritten brought Bradley the pop ballad "I'm Sorry" for Lee to record. After recording, Bradley believed the song to be a hit, but Decca Records rejected it, theorizing that the song was too mature for Lee to record. Instead, "I'm Sorry" was issued as the B-side to the rock tune "That's All You Gotta Do". The A-side reached the top 10 in the US and Australia, while "I'm Sorry" became Lee's first US number one single, spending three weeks at top spot. Bradley then found the Italian ballad "Per Tutta la Vita", which was translated into "I Want to Be Wanted". It became her second number-one song in the US, second Australian top ten single, and first top ten US R&B single. A third ballad, "Emotions", reached the US and Belgian top-10 charts in late 1960. Her hit recordings were then included on corresponding LPs, two of which made the top 10 of the US Billboard 200 chart: Brenda Lee and This Is...Brenda.
Lee was among pop music's best-selling artists during the early 1960s. Her ballads appealed to teenagers and adults alike. Between 1961 and 1963, nine of Lee's ballads made the top 10 in the US, UK, or Australia: "You Can Depend on Me", "Dum Dum", "Fool No. 1", "Break It to Me Gently", "Speak to Me Pretty", "Everybody Loves Me But You", "Here Comes That Feeling", "All Alone Am I", and "Losing You". The singles appeared in several of Lee's studio LPs, including two that made the US Billboard top 20: All the Way and Brenda, That's All. Her 1963 album All Alone Am I reached number eight in the UK.
Decca and her manager further marketed Lee toward straight pop as she neared adulthood, having her appear in supper clubs and record standards. Studio LPs like 1962's Sincerely targeted adult audiences by centering completely on American standard tunes. Lee and her touring band regularly appeared in club venues across New York, Boston, and Las Vegas. They were often backed by full orchestras complete with comedy sketches and Great American Songbook medleys. A 1963 review by Billboard magazine compared her nightclub routine to that of early 20th-century performer Sophie Tucker. Lee also found work in Europe, including a 1962 Hamburg, Germany, performance that featured The Beatles. Lee also continued her education, hiring a tutor to accompany her on tour. Albritten later moved her out of Nashville's public schools into Los Angeles's Hollywood Professional School, where she had classes with Peggy Lipton and Connie Stevens.