33 Facts About Brenda Lee

Brenda Lee is known for her 1960 hit "I'm Sorry" and 1958's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", which has become a Christmas standard.

Brenda Lee is one of the first pop music stars to have a major international following.

Brenda Lee is a member of the Rock and Roll, Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame.

Brenda Lee is the first woman to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music Halls of Fame.

Brenda Lee was born Brenda Mae Tarpley on December 11,1944, in the charity ward of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, to parents Annie Grayce and Ruben Lindsey Tarpley.

Brenda Lee's father was a farmer's son in Georgia's red-clay belt.

Brenda Lee's mother came from a working class family in Greene County, Georgia.

Brenda Lee's father died in 1953 in a construction accident, and by the time she turned ten she was the primary breadwinner of her family, through singing at events and on local radio and television shows.

Brenda Lee performed with Skinner at the record shop on two Saturday programs broadcast over Newport, Kentucky, radio station WNOP.

Brenda Lee's breakthrough came in February 1955, when she turned down $30 to appear on a Swainsboro radio station to see Red Foley and a touring promotional unit of his ABC-TV program Ozark Jubilee in Augusta.

Brenda Lee's next hit, "Dynamite", coming out of a 4-foot 9-inch frame, led to her lifelong nickname, Little Miss Dynamite.

Brenda Lee first attracted attention performing in country music venues and shows; however, her label and management felt it best to market her exclusively as a pop artist, the result being that none of her best-known recordings from the 1960s were released to country radio, and despite her country sound, with top Nashville session people, she did not have another country hit until 1969 with "Johnny One Time".

Brenda Lee achieved her biggest success on the pop charts in the late 1950s through the mid-1960s with rockabilly and rock and roll-styled songs.

The biggest-selling track of Brenda Lee's career was a Christmas song.

Brenda Lee was popular in the UK from early in her career.

Brenda Lee performed on television in the UK in 1959, before she had achieved much pop recognition in the United States.

Brenda Lee's first hit single in the UK was "Sweet Nothin's", which reached No 4 on the UK singles chart in the spring of 1960.

Brenda Lee subsequently had a UK hit with "Let's Jump the Broomstick", a rockabilly number recorded in 1959, which had not charted in the United States, but reached No 12 in the UK.

Brenda Lee had two Top Ten hits in the UK that were not released as singles in her native country: the first, "Speak to Me Pretty" peaked at No 3 in May 1962 and was her greatest hit in the UK by chart placing, swiftly followed by "Here Comes That Feeling", which reached No 5 in the summer of 1962.

Brenda Lee had big hits in the UK with "All Alone Am I" and "As Usual".

Brenda Lee first toured the UK in March and April 1962 with Gene Vincent and Sounds Incorporated, and she toured the country for a second time in March 1963, this time supported by the Bachelors, Sounds Incorporated, Tony Sheridan, and Mike Berry.

Brenda Lee toured in Ireland in 1963 and appeared on the front cover of the Irish dancing and entertainment magazine Spotlight in April that year.

Brenda Lee earned a string of top ten hits in the United States on the country charts, the first of which was 1973's "Nobody Wins", which reached the top five that spring and became her last Top 100 pop hit, peaking at No 70.

In 1992, Brenda Lee recorded a duet with Willy DeVille on his album Loup Garou.

Brenda Lee's most recent album release was a gospel collection in 2007.

On October 4,2000, Brenda Lee inducted fellow country music legends Faron Young and Charley Pride into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Brenda Lee is often called upon to announce the annual inductees to the Country Music Hall of Fame and then officially present them with their membership medallions at a special ceremony every year.

The most recent inductees announced by Brenda Lee were Randy Travis, Charlie Daniels and Fred Foster in 2016.

On September 26,1986, Brenda Lee was installed in the Atlanta Music Hall of Fame 5th Annual Awards Ceremony held at the Raddison Inn, Atlanta, Georgia.

Brenda Lee was named among many other famous recording artists including Riley Puckett, Gid Tanner, Dan Hornsby, Clayton McMichen, and Boots Woodall to name a few.

Brenda Lee reached the final ballot for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and 2001 without being inducted, but she was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.

Brenda Lee met Ronnie Shacklett at a November 1962 Bo Diddley and Jackie Wilson concert at Nashville's Fairgrounds Coliseum and married him less than six months later, on April 24,1963.

Brenda Lee is the cousin to singer Dave Rainwater from The New Christy Minstrels.