♪♪ ♪♪ [ "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" plays ] -It's not Christmas if I don't hear "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," Brenda Lee.

People can't really believe it's been that many years.

-She's in our house at every Christmas.

-It's true.

-She's, like, sitting next to the tree with a present.

-That song didn't go number one over all those decades and finally went number one.

Crazy.

-She just had the number-one record at Christmas.

I mean, she's just -- Come on.

Who does that?

-And I got the honor of being in her first video she's ever -- she ever made in her whole life.

-Her only video, and it goes number one.

-And she has tenacity and perseverance.

-Is she country?

Yes.

Is she pop?

Yes.

Is she rockabilly?

Yes.

And she sings it all effortlessly.

-My mother told me, "Don't let anybody tell you who you are.

You know who you are.

Now go be it."

[ Projector whirring ] -Friends, here's Little Miss TNT, Brenda Lee!

[ "Dynamite" plays ] -♪ Dynamite ♪ -♪ You're dynamite ♪ ♪ Dynamite ♪ -I just always think of her going, "Dynamite!"

with that little growly thing she does all the time.

Just unbelievable.

-♪ Hold me tight ♪ ♪ I just explode like dynamite ♪ -I thought, "Brenda can't be this young."

By the time she got 14 or 15 years old, she had a much lower register.

She was always in control of everything, both rhythmically, emotionally, pitch.

-I must have been 12 years old.

And to hear another 12-year-old sound like that...?

-From age 8 to 18, when she's an active professional, those first 10 years, she's a kid.

She didn't know what the heck's going on.

She's just going, "Go there and sing," and she goes there and sings, and everybody's happy.

-♪ Make history tonight ♪ ♪ The power of one hour of love's delight ♪ It was like, "Is this really happening?

Am I really doing this?

Am I going to be able to do this and help my family and help my siblings?"

And that's how it felt to me, and I loved it.

I loved to sing.

Now, and I didn't care if anybody listened.

I would sing all day long if they let me.

I loved it.

Still do.

-You have sold over 100 million records.

And it's all genres, right?

-It's pop and country and rock.

And started out rockabilly, then went full bang into rock 'n' roll when it first started, along with Elvis, and I was the first female rocker.

Then went into pop, and then had a wonderful career in country.

-We think about all these raucous kind of rockabilly songs that she did, but she really was a torch singer.

-When I was little, my mother would sing me to sleep.

My mother was a pretty darn good singer.

And I didn't know the songs, but I knew I loved the songs.

And when I got old enough to say, "Mom, what songs were those?"

she told me they were Hank Williams songs.

So I cut my teeth on Mr. Hank.

-♪ I got a feeling called the blues ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord ♪ ♪ Since my baby said goodbye ♪ -We couldn't afford batteries all the time.

Daddy had to listen - and Mama, too -- the Yankees and the Dodgers play.

Daddy was Yankee, Mama was Dodger.

And I wanted to listen to the Grand Ole Opry.

-Back in the '40s, and even into the '50s, the radio was what -- What we think of television today is what radio was to that generation of Americans.

People would rather give up their refrigerators than give up their radios.

It was your entertainment, it was your source of news, it was everything.

-Every small city in the United States had a radio station.

-Radio made so many artists.

Radio was our bible.

We had a variety of different types of music all on one station.

-♪ I looked over Jordan and what did I see ♪ -Being a little girl in a small town where no one did this for a living, you know, if you sang, you were in the church choir.

-My mother would get us ready for school every morning.

My sister would come home looking as pristine as she left.

I would come home with my sashes torn out of my dress.

My -- you know, my shoes all scuffed up 'cause I'd climb the trees with the boys and do everything the boys did.

My dad was a carpenter.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom.

I had two siblings, a brother and a sister.

At our grade school, we used to have a talent show.

I was in first grade.

The winner got a trophy, and the second runner-up got a box of, uh, peppermint sticks.

I wanted those peppermint sticks.

I really did.

But I won talent, so I got the trophy, and it was bittersweet because I was like, "Mama's so proud, and I'm proud, but I want those -- I want those sticks."

Because I'd never had any before.

My dad died at a -- at an early age for me, and my mom raised, uh, my brother and my sister and me by herself.

My mother started working 14 hours, 16 hours a day, almost, in a cotton mill.

A lot of my memories of my childhood are sad, in a way, because I lost my father, but glad, too, because I -- I had a plethora of relatives.

My favorite teacher, her name was Norton, Miss Norton, but I called her Miss Snorton.

We really never had the money for the lunchroom.

And we really didn't have the money to pack a lunch, but Miss Snorton knew that.

So, Lucille Norton always brought a bag full of lunch for me and her.

And she always said, "Brenda, you're not gonna believe this, but I brought too much food today.

Can you -- you want to help me eat this food?"

I used to go to the little country store on the corner, and I would stand up on the counter and sing, and I'd get pennies.

So that's when I first realized, "Ooh!

Maybe I could sing, you know and get money for my family."

And that's how that idea got into my head.

-So, just by osmosis, she became the breadwinner of the family.

-I won a contest to be on a TV show, and I started traveling with the band called John Farmer and the TV Ranch Boys, out of Atlanta, Georgia.

And that was the first money I ever made.

Was not much.

I think my first gig was 20 bucks.

But even at that young age, I saw that that helped our life.

It put some food on the table.

It -- It helped.

And I loved it.

-She was the one person in that family that had to take over.

Again -- -It's fortitude.

It's, you know... -And it's the universe telling -- making the path for her, and she was -- she was the one to do it.

-My first TV appearance, it was like, "I'm doing that?

They're letting me do that?"

And it -- it -- it really was surreal.

It was almost an out-of-mind experience.

It was like, "Okay.

I think that's me.

Let me look again."

[ Laughs ] I did one in Atlanta, Georgia.

It was sponsored by an ice-cream company, and I got all the ice cream I could eat on Saturdays.

So that was my pay.

And then I traveled with a, uh, gospel group called the Master Workers Quartet because I was raised in the Southern Baptist church.

A lot of my heritage and my roots in singing came from the field of gospel.

-From the crossroads of country music, here's the "Ozark Jubilee," starring Red Foley!

-Mr. Foley came to town, Red Foley.

And he let me sing a song on the show, and at that point, he had the first network country television show, and it was called the "Ozark Jubilee," from Springfield, Missouri.

He asked me if I'd like to come back and do the Jubilee, and, of course, we just chomping at the bit.

We said, "Absolutely."

So for a year or more, we took the Greyhound bus after school on Friday, rode all night long, got to Missouri, did the show -- it was live -- got back on the bus, rode all day long Sunday, got in school Monday morning.

I was only 10.

A columnist by the name of Jack O'Brien, the great Jack O'Brien out of New York, wrote this glowing -- Nobody could believe it, much less me.

After I did the Red Foley show, at the "Ozark Jubilee," that's where I met my manager, 'cause he managed Red.

And he was from Nashville, Dub Allbritten.

-And he heard her sing and said, "Boy, I need to tell Paul Cohen at Decca Records about you."

They quickly realized this girl's got more talent than any of these other kids that are here.

She was a child prodigy.

-That's how we came to move to Nashville.

To be in the center, to have a recording contract.

Dub took me over.

He had a vision for me.

He was like my dad.

-She had a fully fledged, a fully formed career by the time she signed a record contract.

-And Owen took me over.

-Owen Bradley, her producer, also had the, I think now, visionary idea of marketing her to adult audiences and teen audiences at the same time.

-And the rest is history.

♪ My baby whispers in my ear ♪ ♪ Mm, sweet nothin's ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪ -So, for me to be able to say, "Mom, you don't have to go to the cotton mill today.

It's okay," that was a great thing.

♪ Things he wouldn't tell nobody else ♪ ♪ Secret, baby ♪ ♪ I keep 'em to myself ♪ ♪ Sweet nothin's, mm ♪ -When I first heard Brenda Lee, I thought, "How can this be coming out of this person?"

She was a crossover before we even knew what the word was.

♪♪ -♪ Yeah, we both understand ♪ -Her records were hits on any station that played music.

My goal as a songwriter was to write for Brenda Lee.

I had to have her record my songs.

-♪ My baby give me that special look ♪ ♪ Sweet nothin's, mm ♪ Owen once told me something.

He said, "Brenda..." -- and we listened to everything together.

He'd say, "Be careful of what you choose.

Don't prostitute yourself to choose a song that you think commercially is gonna to be a hit.

Especially if you're not crazy about it.

Because if it is a hit, you're gonna be singing it the rest of your life."

What was so special about Owen...

He didn't know how talented he was, and that's 'cause he loved what he did.

It was not a business to him.

He loved his artists.

He loved his musicians.

Buddy Harman, Bobby Moore, Grady Martin, Hank Garland, Floyd Cramer, Ray Edenton.

It wasn't contrived.

There were no overdubs.

You either got it in one or two takes or you just didn't get it.

If you can't get it in the first couple of takes, it's not the song for you, so we'd just quit and go -- we go to something else.

It was just magic.

It was the A team.

-They both had great ears.

They both knew kind of the path.

Owen credited Brenda with really showing that pop music could be done in Nashville, and I mean international pop music.

She had hits all over the world.

Much more than anybody else coming out of Nashville.

-I'm certainly grateful for Owen Bradley.

And I'm grateful for that little pair-up.

-I felt a -- a connection to Owen.

I was like his child, really.

One of his children.

And when we weren't workin', I'd be up on the boat with -- with Owen and Katherine and the rest of the kids.

-And because they treated her as though she was an equal, not as some stupid little kid, I think that was her schooling.

That was her college, so to speak.

He never handed her a song and said, "Okay.

This is what you're going to do."

They decided together.

But he was also very much a life mentor, a life influence for her.

He did sit her down at one point and said, "Look, you know, as we move toward different things in your career, you need to understand you're not always going to be America's darling.

You will not always have the number-one record in America.

So you need to figure out, as things change, where is your place?

Where are you happy?

And then you take that path, and don't worry about anything else."

-I wasn't the pretty girl.

I wasn't the Annette Funicello.

I was 4'9" and overweight.

'Cause that was really who I was.

I had my first single date with my husband.

-There were some women that stepped up and helped her.

I know she's talked about Patsy Cline, how Patsy helped her.

-Patsy was just...

I loved her.

She was just in the greatest sense of all, the greatest broad I've ever met.

I loved her.

And she was like my sister.

I'd go and clomp around in her boots, in her clothes that were way too big for me.

Lot of times, songs would come in with just a vocal guitar.

Well, Owen could always hear it because he was an orchestra guy.

He could hear things in his head that I couldn't.

But I was a lyric girl.

-Teen magazines, that was a connection.

All of these magazines were very much our Google, you know, to find out what someone was doing and to see your picture or a story about you in one of those magazines.

That's top of the line.

-Georgia Winters wrote me up and became my dear friend, and she had one of the hottest mags in the country for teenagers.

You know, I could put out the greatest song in the world, but if you don't hear it, and nobody writes about it, it might be great, but... -If you liked that kind of music, you bought those magazines with any money that you had.

You wanted to know about the artists that you liked to hear sing.

And she actually had a -- There was a comic book that was made on Brenda, which was pretty popular.

-♪ Well, won't you come home, Bill Bailey ♪ ♪ Won't you come home?

♪ ♪ I'm on the whole night long ♪ I never was, like, the -- the sex symbol.

I was like the girl next door.

You cried on her shoulder and said, "He doesn't like me anymore.

What can I do?"

♪ With nothin' but a fine-tooth comb ♪ ♪ Yeah, I know I'm to blame ♪ ♪ Well, ain't it a shame ♪ ♪ Bill Bailey, won't you please come home?

♪ -She was relatable.

When you're performing as a female, you wanted to be taken seriously, so you wanted to look good, but not that good.

You know what I mean?

You were singing to the females in the audience, and I wanted them to be able to relate.

That was always a fine line.

-♪ Come home, Billy Bailey ♪ ♪ Won't you come home?

♪ Guys always headlined shows.

Girls hardly ever headlined a show.

-I always wondered why they didn't put more than one girl singer on a show.

They just figured that the girls bought the records and they only wanted to hear young, handsome guys.

-I think a 45 was like 99 cents.

I had to mow a lawn, for a dollar a lawn, and then I could buy my brand new Brenda Lee song.

-She becomes, then, a rock 'n' roll princess, and she starts touring with the Bobbies -- Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin -- you know, all the Bobbies.

And they were all teen idols like her.

-In show business, Bobby V. was my really good friend.

Bobby Rydell, Fabian.

All the youngsters that were in my age group, Paul Anka, we all hung out and everything.

So, yeah, I had a lot of boy-friends, but not boy boyfriends.

-As she became a teenager, she desperately wanted to date.

And she had this crush on Fabian.

She kept throwing him hints to ask her out.

Well, he finally did.

They were in San Antonio, and they were walking along the canal there.

And Brenda said that she noticed the bushes shaking.

Lo and behold, her manager, some of the band members, were following them just to make sure that Fabian and Brenda Lee were on their best behavior.

-I was singing all those unrequited love songs.

I'd never had a date.

I did -- I never kissed a boy.

I didn't know what I was -- But I loved the lyric.

-And for a kid especially, you can't do the things everybody else does.

You got to -- can't stand here, you can't be in the casino, you can't be out in the bar.

You have to be backstage at all times.

And that can be a lonely existence.

-So, Brenda didn't get to have much fun.

-I started in rock, and I knew a song that I could sing.

And so we just did it and put it out.

And let them call it what they may, just go out and buy it, please.

[ Chuckles ] That's all we thought about.

-So she would have heard the Grand Ole Opry.

She would have heard the R&B station in Nashville, WLAC.

-A record promoter would go into radio stations in every city around the United States.

If Brenda had a brand-new song on, they were going to hype that song.

If you had a hit, you were making some money, and you were selling some records.

-My experience was positive, because we were all -- especially in the rock movement.

That was a whole new thing that we were all novices at.

So we were all trying to buoy each other up.

-That happens, and it takes people that are brave in the business to kind of take a chance.

-I got my start in Europe before I got it here, much like Tina Turner.

I recorded in their languages.

Toured all of South America, all of Japan, all of Europe.

-She was a star all over the world.

And when she was touring different countries, she would learn a little bit of their language.

-I had gone into the studio with Owen.

I recorded a song called "One Rainy Night in Tokyo."

[ Brenda Lee singing in Japanese ] And he had a student from Vanderbilt come over to teach me the correct Japanese to do a verse and a chorus in that song, and I did.

And we released it.

Well, I really didn't hear any more about it.

But we went to do a tour, because I used to go overseas and tour all the time, in Japan.

And the plane lands, and over where the people used to, they could stand on the tarmac a little ways back and meet you at the steps of the plane.

They were all wearing these little blue hats, and it said BLFC.

And I thought, "What does that mean?"

I turned around to Dub, I said, "Dub" -- that was my manager -- I said, "What does that mean, Dub, BLFC?"

He knew, but he said, "I don't have a clue."

Brenda Lee Fan Club.

I got off the plane, and they just hugged me and loved me, and that was my introduction to Tokyo.

-She sang in French.

She sang in Italian.

She sang songs that she knew would hit that market.

-It was a great time and period in music which we will never see again, because it was so new, so wonderful, so exciting, so inventive, and I'm sorry that we won't.

-Well, now, this is our little teenage delegate, Miss Brenda Lee.

[ Cheers and applause ] Isn't that something right there?

-Least she's cute.

-Yes.

[ "Ballin' the Jack" plays ] -♪ Well, first you put your two knees close up tight ♪ ♪ And then you swing them to the left ♪ ♪ And then you swing them to the right ♪ ♪ Step around the floor kind of nice and light ♪ ♪ And then you twist around and twist around ♪ ♪ With all of your might ♪ -♪ You better spread your loving arms ♪ ♪ Way out in space ♪ ♪ And then you do the eagle rock with style and grace ♪ -So, let's think about what was going on in '56.

Elvis had signed with RCA Records.

So there was a lot going on.

Rock 'n' roll was really starting.

You know, but she started out as a rockabilly singer.

She could do gospel and country, also.

Rockabilly is a hopped-up form of country boogie.

People would dress up and, you know, bring their fancy hot rods down, and they'd do dancing.

Brenda didn't know about any of that.

She couldn't have.

She was 9 or 10 years old.

-And she had a pretty cool rockabilly look, too.

I mean, I must say.

She had the hair.

I mean, it worked.

I mean, listen, all those things gotta line up.

You gotta have a great name.

You know, that's a great name, Brenda Lee.

That's -- that's working, you know?

You have to have a great voice.

You gotta have -- And it just -- it just -- it's meant to be.

-Definition of "rockabilly"?

It's not country, it's not rock.

It's kind of a marriage between several genres.

Whatever it is, I love rockabilly.

♪ Ballin' the jack ♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -They were used to just a woman just standing there, singing.

But Brenda moved around a little bit.

She's a mover and a shaker.

-She was an anomaly at that time, so that really -- You know, when you're different and unique, that goes -- that gets you a long way.

-By the time of the 1950s, American show business is getting kind of sophisticated.

I mean, they're figuring out television and...

The tools that we now use in the entertainment business are all coming into play in the early '50s, just as was Brenda's career.

Groundbreaking only begins to scratch the surface of it.

I mean, the records would come out, one side would be this torrid ballad, and the other side would be this storming rockabilly growler.

She had more double-sided hits than anyone in history, before or since.

She was the largest-selling female vocalist of the 1960s.

-We had each other's backs.

It was not all about the bottom line.

And that started from the top, from the record executives down.

Careers were built, then, by companies.

They didn't just throw a record against the wall.

And if it stuck, "Oh, okay, we'll push it."

They built careers.

When I started touring England, I was popular before I ever was here.

There was this group that opened the show for me known as the Silver Beatles, who became the Beatles.

-There's not very many people you can be in a room with and they talk about that time they hung out with the Beatles.

-John was my favorite Beatle.

I loved them all, but John was, to say the least, irreverent, had a great sense of humor.

He was magical.

He was a genie in a bottle.

And he let me have the cork.

John Lennon says I was the first female rocker.

-Yeah, she deserves that.

Of course.

John Lennon doesn't give out compliments easy.

-She seemed so astute, you know, when I watch her.

I mean, she's so young, but she's so comfortable.

-Oh, yeah.

-She was very fortunate that she had good people around her and that protected her.

That's, I guess, the luck of the draw.

That is so essential.

-The musicians, everybody in Nashville were protective of her.

She ended up going to Maplewood High School here, which is a public high school.

She really tried to have a normal life.

-One of my best friends was Rita Coolidge.

Rita went to high school, and at that time, she wasn't -- she was singing, but not like later on.

I loved riding the school bus.

I loved the whole experience of public schools.

-Brenda has a lot of street smarts.

She's aware of what's going on.

She was a cheerleader in high school, so she was obviously well-liked.

-Rita Coolidge and I went to the old Nashville Fairgrounds Coliseum to see Jackie Wilson.

I was 17.

-Brenda had had enough of her band following her around while she tried to date.

-Rita and I, we're just talking and having a good time, and I look over, and there's this drop-dead gorgeous guy over there, and I said, "Rita, I want to meet him."

She said, "Well, you've lost your mind.

You cannot go up and introduce yourself."

I said, "I'm not.

I'm sending him a note."

So I wrote a note on there, and I said, "Hi.

My name is Brenda.

I'm going to England for the next three months, but here's my number.

Call me."

Well, I didn't hear from him, didn't hear from him.

Went to England, didn't hear from him.

Came back.

Got a call.

We had a date.

Nice, nice date.

Met his parents.

He met my mom.

We cruised Shoney's like everybody else did.

It's the first time I'd ever cruised anything.

So I did tha-- 'Cause I didn't date.

And he was 6'4", so I really liked that part.

[ Laughs ] And he had a Corvette.

That pretty much sealed the deal.

I kept the engagement ring in the box in my purse for three months before I ever said anything to anybody.

'Cause I was scared to death to.

Because, number one, I was the breadwinner for a lot of people.

So I thought it's gonna wear a hole in my darn purse if I don't get it on my finger.

So, finally I -- I got up enough courage, and I told mama.

So we eloped.

You know, Southern women especially are very go by the -- you know, the rules, and I didn't, and that upset her, and -- and I'm sorry to this day about that.

I married April 24th, and I had Julie April 1st of the next year.

I have two daughters.

-She knew what she wanted, got married at 18.

The next year, started having her babies.

-He had his own career, and he wasn't in the music industry, and that's what I was looking for.

He didn't want to go on the road, he didn't like the road, so I said, "Okay.

You don't have to."

He didn't mind if I did.

He never asked me to quit.

I was looking for roots.

I wanted stability in my wonderful, unstable life.

-Brenda Lee has always wanted to be a regular person.

Family was very important to her as she was growing up and remained so.

The problem was, her husband, Ronnie, was not enthralled with show business.

She told me it took years of working out the compromises.

-I made sure I was always home for the biggies.

Anytime the girls had something that was important to them, I was there.

When my daughter Julie was in the sixth grade, Frank Sinatra came to town, and I was invited to a private party.

But Julie was also in the statewide sixth grade science fair.

So there was no choice.

And she won!

And -- and I didn't get to meet Mr. Sinatra, but that's okay.

-I can't even imagine what this was like at this -- in this era.

I mean, it was so difficult for us.

And, um -- and no handbook.

-Hollywood Professional School.

That's where professionals went.

'Cause all these kids were either singers, actors.

Whatever they were, they were in the field of show business.

Now, that was an education.

Kept my grades up and everything while I was appearing at the Olympia Theater with Gilbert Bécaud, the Frank Sinatra of Europe.

Colonel Tom and my manager were the best of friends, and they were in business in the carny days.

That's how I got to know Elvis, through the Colonel.

-Dub, who was friends with Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's manager, saw that same vision that -- What Colonel Tom had done for Elvis, Dub wanted to do -- "I'll do that for Brenda."

-I went to Los Angeles.

Colonel Tom wanted me to do movies.

We moved out there for a year to explore that possibility.

I did do one, did not like it.

It was called "The Two Little Bears."

It's a cute little movie.

Look, Timmy and Billy did it with my chignon.

What's a chignon?

-It's a coil of hair, Harry, that goes right here.

-I bought it for a blind date tonight, to sorta take away the emphasis from my freckles.

-She just was not an actor.

Brenda would much be rather out there singing for the people.

-I was taken to get vocal lessons, and thank God the vocal coach said, "That would just get in her way.

She's fine.

Don't mess with her.

She's okay."

I did take breathing lessons, and I did take things like that to preserve the cords, but never vocal.

That's just a God-given thing.

-People in Nashville would go, "Why are you cutting so many Jackie DeShannon songs?"

Because Jackie, when she turned in her demos, they were like little records.

You could hear how soul-- You could even -- Jackie's voice is very soulful.

-Jackie DeShannon had written some songs specifically for Brenda and had tried to -- had tried to get them to her.

And as soon as Brenda heard them, she loved the demos.

She said, "This is exactly how I want to do them."

They were huge records.

They were huge for her, worldwide hits.

-Brenda was among the first to make hits out of Jackie DeShannon's songs, and that led to Jackie having her own recording career, "Heart in Hand" being one of the great ones.

-She wrote some of my biggest records.

She wrote, "Dum Dum," "Heart in Hand"... Oh, many of them.

'Cause she could sing, and she sure as heck could write.

-I'm so grateful that she liked the songs that I wrote.

And my proudest moment was having her record my song 'cause she gave me my break.

[ "Heart in Hand" plays ] -♪ Here I stand ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Heart in hand ♪ -"Heart in Hand."

That's my favorite.

She's so powerful with her vocals.

-Owen had heard a song called "Fool #1" that somebody had written.

-♪ Am I fool number one ♪ ♪ Or am I fool number two?

♪ -And, you know, the Nashville players, great players, and as a producer, you come in with Brenda and you come in there and you go, "Okay.

Here we're gonna do this."

You could tell those people, "If this is the click and this is your beat, you want to be a little this side, a little this side.

What would you like?

This side?

Okay," and then it's done.

-♪ ...is far from... ♪ -The musicians felt the same way.

They couldn't believe -- You know, she would just stand in the room with them and sing on mic, live, with everybody.

-Bobby Moore might say, "Well, I think this lick might be good here."

We had no arrangements.

We did what was called head arrangements.

Everybody put their head into it and said what they thought, and, boom, we had a record.

That's how it happened with us.

-Even at 11 and 12 years old, in the recording studio, with the A team here in Nashville, they listened to what she had to say.

She was involved in her own career.

She wasn't a puppet.

-She walked into the studio with that right relationship, and 13, 14, whatever age it was.

When she walked out of that studio, she was 21.

-She had heard "I'm Sorry," that record from Ronnie Self, who'd written the song.

She'd wanted to record it for Decca, but the Decca executive said, "No, we don't think you can be believable doing that song.

You're just, you know, 14 years old.

That's not gonna work."

-♪ I'm sorry ♪ ♪ So sorry ♪ ♪ Please accept my apology ♪ -"I'm Sorry" really, uh, hits me.

I like the way she sings it.

And plus, I hear it in every dang movie I see.

I call her up and say, "I just heard you on this movie I'm watching right here," you know, in case she didn't know.

-She did a few sessions in New York.

She did some in London.

They were trying to figure out what to do during the middle of "I'm Sorry."

They were running it down and just, she started doing a recitation.

And they said, "That's perfect."

Well, she had heard that from the Ink Spots.

-I'm sorry.

So sorry.

Please accept my apology, but love is blind.

-And she just knew that's what's going to fit.

They finally agreed, "Okay, you can do it," but even then, they put it on a B side.

So it's lucky that a DJ flipped it over and played it.

-If you had an opportunity to be on "American Bandstand," so many kids, which is the market, basically, that we were all aiming for, is to have our fellow friends and associates love our music.

Dick Clark was everything.

And to be on "American Bandstand" gave you an opportunity to reach out to such a big audience.

-It was a huge cultural touchstone for American teenagers.

-Dick Clark.

Ladies and gentlemen, Little Miss Dynamite, Brenda Lee.

You had to be on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand."

-That was such a -- such a big show.

It was a lot of teenagers dancing and records playing.

-I remember her on stage, and I just watched every move she made.

-♪ Oh-oh, oh, yes ♪ ♪ I'm sorry ♪ -I was brought a song much like the ballads that I had recorded in the '60s that were huge, huge hits.

And the song was called "Nobody Wins," written by Kris Kristofferson.

We recorded it.

It was 1972.

And it went to number 1, country.

All of a sudden, I'm a country singer.

So, all of a sudden, I have a new career.

-She blended it all together -- rockabilly, rock, pop, and then country.

You know, she did a great version of "Nobody Wins."

Kristofferson's song.

-We went in and recorded "Nobody Wins," much like we had all the ballads like "All Alone Am I" and "Losing You" and "Break It To Me Gently" and "I'm Sorry" and "I Wanna Be Wanted," and, I mean, we did it the same way, but it was country.

-Brenda Lee, several times, was caught in between shifts, in musical movements.

By the time she was in the '70s where she was moving into country music, that had been shifting.

The Nashville sound kind of moved on.

We were now into the outlaw days.

-No one says "Country artist Brenda Lee," or "Rock 'n' roll star"...

It's -- she's just Brenda.

-I don't see Brenda Lee in any box.

She'd kick out the sides anyway if she was ever put in one.

-I don't think she ever chased any trend.

I don't think she tried to conform.

-With women in this industry, she did it before anybody did it.

And she -- I think she broke the rules, actually.

-We try very hard, all of us now, to stop labeling ourselves as "female rockers," you know?

And we just -- we just make music.

You can't deny the fact that it's still lopsided.

It's lopsided everywhere.

There were people that went before us who were really just trying to hammer out that path.

The next ones came and walked the path.

-In the time period and with all the things that -- all the adversity she faced, to still be able to make it and then to sustain it over time and to -- as the business changed and as the world changed, Brenda Lee changed.

-If you listen to Brenda's early records, obviously she doesn't sound the same as she did five years later, and then 5 years later, and then 10 years later.

-♪ I'm sorry ♪ ♪ So sorry ♪ -Brenda just got a, um...

It's sass.

She's got a sass in her tone.

So you immediately like her.

Even before you know who she is, what she looks like, what her name is, anything, that voice has just the right blend of fun, spirit, toughness, sexiness, relatability.

-♪ But that don't right the wrong that's been done ♪ ♪♪ -I remember talking to her in the mid '80s, and she was a woman who was still a young woman.

She had been around 30 years.

-♪ Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou ♪ -She couldn't get a record deal in Nashville.

She had to keep convincing people, "No, I'm still late 30s.

I'm still early 40s.

I'm still at it."

-♪ Crawfish pie and fillet gumbo ♪ ♪ 'Cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma chère amie-o ♪ -I didn't realize at the time we were doing the interview that, a few months later, she would be filing a lawsuit against MCA -- $20 million lawsuit -- because she had discovered that they were going against a very long contract.

They'd been putting out music, some things overseas, and she was not getting those royalties.

-The whole business is stacked against you as an artist.

From day one, they're out to get you.

And when you do audit those record companies, what you find out is, "Oops!

There's a whole lot of sales that haven't been accounted for."

And you have to sue.

It's just business.

It's not anything acrimonious.

It's not anything, "I hate you."

It's none of that.

It's just good business.

-All of us come to a pivotal moment when we know, in our heart, that it's time to pull back and say, "Okay.

Let's let the kids have it."

-I thought she was such a strong person.

Her vision was so strong.

And she just overpowered things around her.

-It was just non-stop.

You can do that when you're young.

Maybe that's why I worked all the time, because I knew that, at one point, I just wouldn't be able to or wouldn't want to.

I had what is known as a pulmonary embolism.

And, um, that was pretty serious and kept me sidelined for a bit.

Uh, and then I had a pretty serious, um, kidney surgery.

But that's all good.

I'm fine.

I'm healthy.

♪ You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ♪ ♪ Cryin' all the time ♪ -If you look at her as this little kid on TV in 1957... -♪ Cryin' all the time ♪ ♪ You ain't never caught a rabbit ♪ ♪ You ain't no friend of mine ♪ -...the stage presence, the confidence, belting it out, knowing when to look at this camera and that camera.

-♪ Well, that was just a lie ♪ ♪ You ain't never caught a rabbit ♪ ♪ You ain't no friend of mine ♪ -Fast-forward to just, let's say, her performance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2002.

She is exactly the same.

-♪ My baby whispers in my ear, Lord ♪ ♪ Ah, sweet nothin's ♪ ♪♪ ♪ He knows the things I like to hear, oh ♪ ♪ Ah, sweet nothin's ♪ -It's kind of hard to be in the -- to be voted to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Brenda got in in 2002.

She also got a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

And that's how the industry thinks how important she was.

-She was rock and roll.

-It's rightly so that she ended up in the Hall of Fame.

♪♪ -I have to say that, after it happened, it does change.

It changes the way you think of it.

You are -- You're thinking like, "That's kind of cool."

[ Laughs ] -And you kind of feel like, "Oh, we're in the club now," or something.

-But I never thought I'd get in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I never thought I'd get in any hall of fame.

I never dreamed that I would be in the Rock, the Rockabilly, the Pop, and the Country.

-She's what the Hall Of Fame is about.

-Her and Connie Smith, two of my biggest heroes, you know, welcomed me into the Hall of Fame.

And I tell you what -- Connie was almost like a straight -- a straight man, and Brenda had everybody laughing so hard.

I -- I just -- My gut was hurting.

-This is very special to me.

I started to say we're not that far apart in age, but, hell, I think we are.

[ Laughter ] When I was first starting out, we lied so much about my age.

We did!

Hell, I don't know how old I am.

-She's hilarious and so sharp.

-We had that "getting started at an early age" connection.

So we have that in common.

-It turns out that my very first awareness of her was not being aware that it's her.

"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," hearing that as a kid, but I didn't know who sang it.

I was too little at the time.

I just loved the song.

-I recorded "Rockin'" when I was 12.

Johnny Marks wrote it.

I said, "Johnny, you don't even believe in Christmas."

And I said, "Tell me how you wrote 'Rockin'."

He said, "I was laying on the beach in New York, and pine trees were over to this side," and he said, "I kind of went to sleep to take a little nap, and I woke up, and I was facing the pine trees, and they were just kind of swaying like this."

And he said, "And I thought 'Rockin' around the Christmas tree,' and there it was."

-They put it out, it didn't sell.

Then she had some big success in Europe, and they released it in Europe, and it then became a huge seller.

-I got a call on the phone.

And they said, "Brenda, Brenda, there's a movie out.

It's called 'Home Alone,' and your song's all over it!"

And I said, "Which song?

What are you talking about?"

They said, "'Rockin' is all over it."

Well, it just went from there.

-Brenda Lee is a part of millions of families and has been a part of their life their entire life.

That's an extraordinary accomplishment with just one song.

-I love just the way that she's kinda hittin' that little cadence.

Like, it reminds me of, like, some certain parts -- Like, we've heard rockabilly before.

-Mm-hmm, yeah.

-And we've heard some artists kind of do that.

It's so cool the way that she does that.

-That quick breath in-between.

-Duh-a-duh-a-duh-a-duh-a-duh.

-Yeah.

-We did a Christmas song a few years ago, and I was channeling -- I was channeling her because I wanted to get that little hiccup thing that she did.

But I mean that it's just -- it's such a -- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," it's such an iconic song.

-I can hear the Brenda Lee influence in Pat Benatar.

-There's certain perennial songs that just stand the test of time, and Brenda's got one of them.

-It knocked Mariah Carey off the charts.

You hear Brenda Lee singing "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and it's Christmastime, baby.

-I was thinking Broadway years, years and years and years ago.

And I did the show at Opryland two shows a day, six days a week, for three years.

Unh-unh.

I'm glad I didn't choose Broadway.

Because it is hard.

Even if you love it, it's hard.

-For the longest time, one of my -- one of the earliest songs I heard was by Golden Earring, called "Radar Love."

-♪The radio's playing some forgotten song ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Brenda Lee's "Coming On Strong" ♪ ♪♪ -And I would sing that in my cover-band days.

That's -- that's not some made-up name.

She's coming on strong.

Perfect.

And what a great use of her name in that context.

Who else would be coming on strong through the radio?

-Her line was, "I pump my hair up to the heavens, and I pray that I'm gonna be six feet."

-I'm still short.

I still sing, in the house and at church and whatever.

I have loved my career.

My singing has been my tranquilizer.

I haven't had to be on pills... [ Chuckles ] ...because all I have to do is sing.

And that makes me happy.

-She said the reason she never got involved with drugs or alcohol was because she knew she would like it.

She knew it was around her.

But she didn't do it because she knew she'd like it.

-I have never wanted to do a celebrity biography, ever.

But Brenda?

That's something different.

I mean, we spent all day, every day, for a year together, working on her book.

If I had to spend that much time with most celebrities -- "celebrities" -- I would strangle them.

You know, I never got tired of being around her.

I never got tired of being around her.

And when it was over, she cried.

-When you get a chance to spend time with Brenda Lee, you're going to school.

She has this history that most people don't, that most people that have that history are gone.

She is sort of the last man standing with those stories who experienced it all.

She's not what we typically hear of from child stars.

This is not how this -- this is not how it goes for most people.

-It's always about honoring where we come from, who we come from, musically.

Particularly in our genre, it's always evolved over the years, and it's evolved extraordinarily, but it's always maintained a strong thread throughout all of its evolution.

I always put that down to knowing where it came from.

-♪ Well, goodbye, Joe, me gotta go, me, oh, my, oh ♪ -She's so generous with the female artists in her life.

♪♪ ♪ My Yvonne, the sweetest one, me, oh, my, oh ♪ -Gratitude and confidence is a great mix, and she really personifies that.

-She forged the path, definitely.

-♪ Jambalaya, a crawfish pie, and fillet gumbo ♪ ♪ 'Cause tonight, I'm gonna see my ma chère amie-o ♪ -I would like for somebody to say, "You know what?

I met her, and she was really nice to me."

Because I really try to be, and it's sincere.

Because the people have -- Well, God made me, but the people have continued His work and have let me do what I want to do for a long, long time.

♪ And be gay-o ♪ ♪ Well, son of a gun, we'll have... ♪ I know what I believe, and most of my friends and I differ in our beliefs, but that doesn't stop us from being friends and having a conversation.

And it just keeps me balanced.

-She has done things that I don't think anybody else is ever gonna do.

Ain't gonna happen.

-The universe had a destiny for her.

There's no question.

The universe had a special goal for her, and she fulfilled it.

-To convince record-company executives at the time when I was recording, it was -- you know, it was all down to the power you had on the page.

And if it's not there, you're not going to have it, especially as a woman coming up at that time.

-For somebody to be a child prodigy like that, to progress as an artist, as a musician, as a singer, I think it says a lot about who she thought she was and who she wanted to be.

That's pretty amazing.

Based out of Nashville.

-There's not those kind of recognizable voices anymore.

-Brenda Lee, over the years, has been honored for her talent and the ability to tell a story, the ability to make people cry, to make people laugh.

-I don't think she really understands what she's -- what she's brought to the game and what she has accomplished because she's so humble.

-The people really in the early years that really looked at a little girl and saw something further than just a little girl, I can't ever -- There are -- there are no words to thank them.

No words.

The only thing that I can attribute that to was good songs.

The A team of musicians that I had.

It was just all a group thing.

It just was never me.

It was everybody contributing.

♪ ...sorry ♪ I never say, "I did that.

Oh, that was --" It's, "We did it."

♪♪ I'm just blessed that they took an 11-year-old seriously.

-♪ Sorry ♪ [ "Dynamite" plays ] -♪ Dynamite ♪ ♪♪ -When I worked with Don Rickles and all, I was like 12 years old.

He would say on the stage at the Fontainebleau in Miami, he'd say, "Well, I'm about through with my show now."

Said, "I guess we'll just call little Brenda Lee.

She's upstairs in her room playing with her paper dolls."

[ Laughs ] ♪ The power of one hour of love's delight ♪ ♪ Just knocks me out like dynamite ♪ ♪ Because you're dynamite ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Because you're dynamite ♪ -♪ You're dynamite ♪ ♪♪