Brenda Lee Reacts To Streaming Milestone For Vacation Hit

In 2023, music legend Brenda Lee earned the title of honorary Queen of Christmas when her timeless 1958 hit, “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree,” claimed the highest spot on the Billboard chart, dethroning Mariah Carey’s perennial vacation anthem, “All I Need for Christmas Is You.”

Initially launched when Lee was simply 13 years previous, the tune was penned by Johnny Marks, recognized for writing different vacation classics like “Rudolph the Purple-Nosed Reindeer” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas.”

Over the many years, Brenda Lee’s jazzy vocals and the tune’s upbeat rhythm have cemented it as a seasonal staple.

Now, because the 2024 vacation season will get underway, Lee appears able to reclaim her festive crown.

On December 10, it was introduced that “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” has surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify, making it the primary vacation tune by a feminine nation artist to realize this milestone. “I used to be dumbfounded once I heard,” Lee advised PEOPLE Journal. “I can’t even suppose that top, a lot much less say it!”

The Recording Trade Affiliation of America (RIAA) additionally acknowledged Brenda Lee for “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” reaching seven-times platinum standing, signifying over 7 million copies bought. It stays the second-highest licensed Christmas tune in historical past, trailing solely Mariah Carey’s “All I Need for Christmas Is You.”

Though “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” bought steadily all through the Nineteen Fifties and early Sixties, its standing as a beloved cross-generational anthem wasn’t solidified till the Nineteen Nineties. Since then, its reputation has solely grown.

“Anyone known as me at some point and so they stated, ‘Brenda, have you ever seen that new film?’ I stated, ‘No, which one?’ And so they stated, ‘’House Alone.’ Your tune is throughout it.’ And that is actually when it began,” Lee expressed.

In 2023, Brenda Lee launched a brand new music video for the vacation basic, that includes cameos from nation icons Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood. This yr, she launched a particular seven-inch vinyl version, together with a limited-edition pink model obtainable at Goal.

Brenda Lee, like so many others, finds it arduous to imagine the vacation season has arrived as soon as once more. “It appears to slide up on you earlier than you already know it!” she shares with amusing. Amid the festivities, she hopes to carve out a while for her favourite pastime. “I’m a ferocious reader,” she says, and he or she’s additionally trying ahead to reconnecting with family members.

“I’m sort of old school,” Lee explains. “I wish to have my household and all my mates come over. We have fun and have a very good time.” The celebrations revolve round her “old school” Christmas tree. “I at all times have a dwell, inexperienced tree. I just like the scent of it. I’ve ornaments from the time my children have been little. We at all times put these on together with the brand new ones that we add yearly.”

With Christmas and her birthday each falling in December, Lee will get a double dose of needs. This yr, she’s hoping for one thing way more significant than materials items. “I would like individuals to not endure and to have a very good life,” she displays. “Our world strikes so quick and livid. I believe it bypasses kindness. I simply need our world to be higher.”

Launched in 1994, “All I Need For Christmas Is You” first achieved important chart success, reaching quantity six on the Billboard charts and quantity two in each the UK and Japan. Within the years since, the emergence of streaming platforms has propelled the tune to extraordinary new heights, solidifying its place as one of many best-selling digital singles in historical past.

“I used to be engaged on it on my own … on this little Casio keyboard and writing down phrases and eager about, ‘What do I consider at Christmas? What do I really like? What do I would like? What do I dream of?'” Carey stated when she celebrated the tune’s thirtieth anniversary. “And that is what began it.”

With a powerful 16 million copies bought worldwide, the tune has topped charts in over 30 international locations in the course of the vacation season, incomes its place as a timeless Christmas basic. In the meantime, “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” has bought over 25 million copies worldwide.