Never going to be able to listen to that song the same way again. Everybody knows Brenda Lee's classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." The song was written by Johnny Marks, who also wrote other holiday classics like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Holly Jolly Christmas." And young Brenda Lee was only 13 years old when she recorded the song back in 1958. The song didn't initially do very well on the charts, but Lee began to break out as an artist in 1960 and the song would enter the Billboard charts that year for the first time, making it as high as #14 around the holidays. Of course "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" had a major resurgence when it was featured prominently in the 1990 movie Home Alone, during the scene when Kevin is trying to make it look like there's a big Christmas party going on at the house so the Wet Bandits don't try to break in. And since then, it's become a holiday staple, finally reaching the #1 spot on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2023. The achievement set the record for Lee, who was 79 at the time, as the oldest artist to top the Hot 100 charts. And it also marked the longest amount of time between a single's release and its first time topping the chart, finally hitting #1 over 65 years after it was first released. It also gave Lee the record for the longest period of time between #1 singles, with her last chart-topper "I Want To Be Wanted" coming 63 years before her Christmas classic hit #1. Not a bad run for a song that's over six decades old. And though we've all heard the song millions of times, Brad Paisley may have ruined it for me every time I hear it these days. Everybody knows the words to the songs by now, right? “Rockin' around the Christmas tree Let the Christmas spirit ring Later we'll have some pumpkin pie And we'll do some caroling” Except that's not what Brad heard when he listened to it. In a TikTok posted back in 2020, he pointed out that "pumpkin" sounds a lot like....well, another word. https://www.tiktok.com/@bradpaisley/video/6904409354766798086?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7079551662505215534 "F*ckin' pie." I can't unhear it now. Pretty sure that's not what 13-year old Brenda Lee was saying when she recorded the song back in 1958, but that's what I'll be hearing (and singing) from now on. Thanks Brad Paisley. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" may have gotten off to a slow start back in the 1950s, but it's become Brenda Lee's best known song and a holiday staple. In fact, Lee was recently awarded a plaque from Spotify after the song crossed over 1 BILLION streams, making her the only female country artist with a Christmas song that has over a billion streams. And the song was also recently certified 7x platinum by the RIAA, meaning it's sold over 7 million units in its lifetime. Lee seems to be happy to finally be getting the recognition she deserves for her song, and frequently posts on TikTok using the holiday classic that she recorded as a young teenager. And it's good to see that she's getting all these honors while she's still around - although I have a feeling she wasn't expecting to be getting awards for the songs 65 years after it was released. https://www.tiktok.com/@brendaleeofficial/video/7446514444785569066