BOBBYCAST - Christmas Special: Brenda Lee on the Unexpected Life of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
The Bobby Bones Show
Premiere Networks
4.8 • 9.8K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
On this Christmas special, we’re bringing back one of the most memorable BobbyCast conversations: Bobby Bones sitting down with the legendary Brenda Lee. Brenda shares what it was really like growing up in the spotlight—making her Grand Ole Opry debut at just 10 years old, then traveling to Japan as a teenager while most kids her age were still figuring out middle school.She also tells the story behind the unexpected second life of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” including how Home Alone helped introduce the song to a whole new generation—and why she never imagined it would become her signature holiday hit. Plus, Brenda takes Bobby through some true music-history moments: meeting Elvis, spending time around Patsy Cline, and what it feels like listening back to the recordings she made when she was still a kid.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:10.8 | Because it is Christmas week when we loaded this, |
| 0:13.8 | I thought it'd be fun to play the interview with Brenda Lee. |
| 0:17.0 | Now, Brenda Lee has rocking around the Christmas tree. |
| 0:20.5 | That song has been around forever. But what we learn in this podcast, in this interview, is that it wasn't a massive hit when it came out. Now, Brenda Lee just turned 81 on December 11th. In this interview, she talks about how Home Alone helped launch, well, I don't want to spoil it, but rocking around the Christmas tree, even though it was so many years after. We talk about playing the grand |
| 0:41.8 | old opera for the first time. We talk about her going to Japan when she was 14 and meeting Elvis |
| 0:46.3 | and hanging out with Patsy Klein. Here it is. This is our episode with Brenda Lee. |
| 0:52.0 | Hello, Ms. Brenda Lee. Hello. It's really good to see you again. And you as well. The last time that we talked, we were trying to get that Christmas song up to number one. We were. And boy, did it go to number one. And you did it. Oh, I didn't do anything. Well, you helped with it. Rocking around the Christmas tree went number one. |
| 1:11.1 | Yeah. |
| 1:11.4 | That's really exciting. |
| 1:13.2 | When you think of how old it is, it truly is. |
| 1:18.1 | And when you think it was written by a Jewish man, it truly is. |
| 1:24.1 | So what's remarkable about that song, and then I definitely want to get on to the greatest hits, |
| 1:30.3 | but what's remarkable about that song is that it has been around for a long time. |
| 1:34.6 | It is sustained. |
| 1:36.4 | And also, it even sounds, like the audio quality sounds like a song that was recorded many years ago, |
| 1:42.9 | yet it's so good it continues to not only |
| 1:46.7 | just linger around but again it's always in the top two or three anyway number one finally |
| 1:51.5 | like the sustained success of that song is unlike many songs ever at what point did you realize |
| 1:58.7 | this song is going to just stick around for decades? |
| 2:02.1 | You know, I never dreamed in the world that that would be my signature song. |
... |
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