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Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
Single Brenda Lee-Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree cover.jpg
Single by Brenda Lee
from the album Merry Christmas from Brenda Lee
B-side "Papa Noël"
Released 1958 (US),
December 1962 (UK)
Format 7-inch
Recorded October 19, 1958
Genre Christmas, country, rockabilly
Length 2:02
Label Decca 9-30776
Writer(s) Johnny Marks
Brenda Lee singles chronology
"Rock-a-Bye Baby Blues"
(1957)
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
(1958)
"I Want to Be Wanted (Per Tutta La Vita)"
(1960)
Music video
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (audio) on YouTube
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Mel & Kim.jpg
Single by Mel & Kim
B-side "Deck the Blooming Halls"
Released November 23, 1987
Format 7", 12"
Genre Christmas music
Length 3:38
Label Ten
Writer(s) Johnny Marks
Producer(s) Stuart Colman
Kim Wilde singles chronology
"Say You Really Want Me"
(1987)
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
(1987)
"Hey Mister Heartache"
(1988)
Music video
Mel & Kim
"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree"
on YouTube

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is a Christmas song written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958. By the song's 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee's original version had sold over 25 million copies with the 4th most digital downloads sold of any Christmas single, and has since been recorded by numerous other music artists.

Despite her mature-sounding voice, Lee recorded this song when she was only thirteen years old. The song's declaration of a rock and roll sound notwithstanding, its instrumentation also fits the country music genre, which Lee more fully embraced as her career evolved. The recording features Grady Martin on guitar, Boots Randolph on sax, and veteran session player Buddy Harman on drums. The song is written in the key of A-flat major.

An instrumental version of the song appears as background music in the 1964 television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which exclusively featured music written by Marks. It can be heard in the scene where Rudolph first arrives at the Reindeer Games and meets another reindeer named Fireball. A fully sung version of the song would later appear in Rankin/Bass's 1979 sequel Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July. The song was also used in the 1990 film Home Alone during a scene when Kevin McCallister pretends that there is a holiday party taking place in his house, and discourages the burglars from robbing it.

Although Decca released the single in both 1958 and again in 1959, it did not sell well until Lee became a popular star in 1960. That Christmas holiday season, Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. It continued to sell well during subsequent holiday seasons, peaking as high as No. 3 on Billboard's Christmas Singles chart in December 1965.


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