December 23, 2025 • 35 mins
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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Because it is Christmas week. When we loaded this, I
thought it'd be fun to play the interview with Brenda Lee.
Now Brenda Lee has Rocking around the Christmas Tree. 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 eighty one on December eleventh. In this interview, she
(00:29):
talks about how Home Alone helped launch Well, I don't
will spoil it, but rocking around the Christmas Tree, even
though it was so many years after we talked about
playing the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. We
talked about her going to Japan when she was fourteen
and meeting Elvis and hanging out with Patsy Klein. Here
it is. This is our episode with Brenda Lee. Hello,
Miss Brenda Lee.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hello, it's really good to see you again and you
as well.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The last time that we talked, we were trying to
get that Christmas song up to number one. We were
a boy did it go to then?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And you did it?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Oh? I didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Well, you helped with it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That Rocking around the Christmas Tree went number one. Yeah,
that's really exciting.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
When you think of how old it is, it truly is,
and when you think it was written by a Jewish man,
it truly was.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So what's remarkable about that song? And then I definitely
want to get onto the greatest hits, But what's remarkable
about that song is that it has been around for
a long time, it has sustained and also it even
sounds like the audio quality sounds like a song that
was recorded many years ago. Yet it's so good. It
(01:40):
continues to not only just linger around, but again it's
always in the top two or three, and it went
number one. Finally, like the sustained success of that song
is unlike many songs. Ever, at what point did you
realize this song is going to just stick around for decades?
Speaker 4 (01:58):
You know?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I never dream in the world that that would be
my signature song. I always thought I'm Sorry would probably
be it. And that song was written by the great
Johnny Marks, who is Jewish, who wrote all the great
Christmas songs. And I said to him one day, I said, Johnny,
(02:21):
you don't even believe in Christmas. I said, how are
you writing these songs? He said, I don't know. But
when I sit down to write that's what comes out.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
When it first came out, was it a hit? Was
it a holiday hit? Or did it take a.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
While before it It took a minute. Yes, it did, And.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's surprising because usually a song has its biggest when
it's released, usually has a shot, and then if it
does a hit, it's kind of done.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, well, especially back in those days. But no, it wasn't.
I mean, it was played, but I'll tell you when it.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Really took off.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
One of my friends called me one night and said, Brenda,
have you seen the movie Home Alone? And I said no.
They said, well, your song's all over it. And I
said which song? And they said Rockin' And that was
really the catalyst that brought it to where it is.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So that means it had to have been out twenty
five or thirty years before the Home Alone? Right?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Probably?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, And you're right, I guess even for me, that
was when I and I was a kid. Yeah, that
was my introduction to that song.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I'll we darn.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So you grew up, You grew up as a young
young kid in Atlanta. Correct? Did you ever have roots
in Atlanta? Because I felt like you were traveling so
much so young.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I was actually I lived in a little town called Lithonia,
which is maybe eighteen miles from Atlanta, and I used
to do a show called John Farmer and the TV
Ranch Boys, and that was out of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
See were driving in Atlanta. Would your parents take you?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Huh? My mom would take me. My dad died when
I was very young.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And then there was a big, huge ballroom at that
time called the Sports Arena. People would go there and
dance and it was just a really fun place. And
I used to sing there every Saturday night with the
band from the TV station.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Where did your music passion come from?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I've often wondered that myself. My mother could sing, but
it wasn't like she sang to me or sang all
the time. We had a little radio, and I remember
my daddy he loved the Yankees, Mama loved the Dodgers.
So they would keep enough battery where they could do that,
(04:54):
and then I could listen to my music.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So I started listening really e.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And you think hearing your favorite songs and hearing the
i'm assuming AM radio, that's what motivated you to start singing.
Did you have a bunch of friends, because I feel
like I watched a lot of TV because I don't
have any friends. Like that's why I think that's kind
of why I'm funny now too, is because I don't
have a whole lot of friends. But so I had
to develop that if you're listening to a lot of music,
(05:23):
would you just sit at the radio and listen and
memorize songs and sing long? And was that what you
would do in the evenings?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I had friends, you know, I was in regular school
and I had friends, but it was it was just,
well you probably know, it's something that drew you and
you really had no control over it.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And when you tell your mom you want to sing publicly,
is what is her reaction and how does she immediately
help you try to?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, I think they saw the talent, especially my mom.
My dad died when I was really young, and I
think she saw the talent and she saw the want
in me to want to do it. She was not
the kind of person or mother that would say, okay,
got it, you gotta sing tonight, blah blah blah. She
(06:19):
wasn't that at all.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
So she didn't push you to do.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
It, No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But she encouraged you to follow your passion absolutely, And
how did she do that? At first?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, radio, she let me listen to what I wanted
to listen to on radio. And then there was a
place called the Sports Arena in Atlanta. It was, like
I said, big old, huge ballroom.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
But how did she get you on stage there? Like
what she just asked?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
She was very brazen. She would say, my little girl
can really sing? Would you let her sing tonight? And
finally the band said yeah, and I did, and I
became a regular Saturday nighter.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I was ten years old.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Were you ever full of stage fright at that age
or did it feel so natural?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It just felt natural.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
What singers did you like as a young kid that
you would emulate.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I don't know that I emulated anybody, but I loved
Hank Williams. I think he was probably my favorite. I
loved Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Ella Fitzgerald. I loved all
(07:35):
the older singers, not that they were old then, but
they were older than me and I got to meet
all of them and that was a dream come true.
And I just liked I never could identify with kitchy songs.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I liked the good songs.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You liked the mature adult songs I did, which had
to be a little weird for a kid to like.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
The magin Yeah, and everybody wondered, why do you like those?
You're ten years old? I said, I don't know, but
I do.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
We interrupt this interview to bring you a message from
our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
This is the Bobby Cast. How long did you perform
in Georgia before he started to travel around?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We moved to Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We were playing the Fox Theater and Red Foley came
to town and somehow or another he let me sing
a song on the show. And at that time he
was the host of the Ozark Jubilee out of Springfield, Missouri,
(08:53):
and he asked if I would like to come and
do the show, and of course we said yes. So
it wound up we moved there and I became a regular.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So you moved to Missouri? How'd you like that? Do
you remember it?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I do. I liked Missouri.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It was fun and I was doing absolutely what I
loved to do. Going to school too. Mama always made
me go to school. It wasn't like, oh she sings,
she you know, No, that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Your mom moved for you.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, wow, yeah she really did.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Like looking back now, is there a gratefulness? Is something
old sacrifice?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Of course, I couldn't be here without her, But I
couldn't be who I am without her either, because she
was my best publicity person, my best Okay, you can
do this. She was my everything in my singing.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
When did you start to come to Nashville.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I came to Nashville and I was I think I
was eleven.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Or twelve, So that's pretty quick then.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, so you're singing in Georgia at ten. Yeah, you're
in Missouri at eleven. Yeah, and about a year later
you're in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Do you move here or do you come here at
first just to kind of see what it's about.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
We came, but we moved really quick. Why Well, because
there was.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
More opportunity, There was more interest. People weren't afraid to
record a child thinking their voice might change, and you
put all that energy and finance into it, and then
it turns out their voice changes and they're not good anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know. I never thought about that, but I can
tell that was actually a thing by how you're describing it.
So there must have been reluctance then to invest in
you as a kid, because they thought as you grew
your voice would change and maybe you would not be
able to sing. Yeah, that's what they would say. So
who believe in you? Then? To invest in you and go?
I still believe that even if there is a voice change,
(11:04):
she'll be great.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Readfully, so the same, red fully, same redfully.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
What do you think you saw on you?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Goodness, nobody's ever asked me that question. I think the
thing he really saw me in me was the need,
the need to be able to help my family financially,
and the need to be able to sing.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
I love to sing.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Did you start to feel a pressure at eleven, twelve,
thirteen years old to support your family? No, you never
felt the pressure was never put on you. No, did
you feel like you needed to do even if there
wasn't a pressure. Do you feel like that's something you
wanted to do?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yes? Always?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Why?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I mean, I don't know. I would have sang for nothing,
you know, the money was just good, too bad. I
just love to sing always. And where that came from,
I have no clue.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
When you moved to Nashville and recorded, did you soon
start touring regionally or nationally.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
All over the world, all over the world.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I don't like flying now.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I don't either.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I can imagine flying over the ocean.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well you know when you're twelve. Yeah, that's true, you know,
and you don't think about that. I don't like it now,
So I don't go as much as I used to.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So you go all over the world, all over the world.
Did you feel safe as a kid singer?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
My mom was with me, my manager, so yeah, and
the band guys would protect me. I was like their
little sister. Sometimes they protected me too much like a sister. Yeah,
like I couldn't get in any trouble.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
When did you play the opry for the first time.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I was ten years old, so that would have been.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Fifty four or fifty five when we moved to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I just went to the opera.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
It seamlessly slid in at the Ryman any other performers
that you listened to or liked in that first year
so that you're playing the opera, that they would play
the opera and you think it was cool to be
able to see them.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I loved Patsy Kline, loved her, loved her heart, loved
her talent, loved her generosity.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
She was.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Not affected at all by the industry. I loved that
about her, and she just kind of took me under
a wing, as did Dottie West, and we were friends forever.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Did you ever get to see Hank Senior at the opera?
Because I know he got some try they were like, hey,
don't come back around here no more. But did you
ever get to see Hank Senior or the operation?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I did one time?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
And how was that experience.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
A dream?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Really?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Because you know, I sang all his songs and had
hits with a lot of them, and to meet the
guy that wrote him, it's surreal almost.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And he had to be in his early twenties, right
young at that point.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Very young.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
What about Elvis?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Oh, Elvis was a trip. I loved Elvis, but he
was he was almost like a pretend person because he
was so good you couldn't believe he was real. He
was sweet, but he was firm, He knew what he wanted.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Knew what he liked.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He wouldn't really if he really truly believed in it,
don't try to convince him of something else, because that's
what he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Did you see him in town much in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Not a whole lot went to his sessions and watched.
And that's that's back, gosh, late fifties. That's back when
we didn't have all the knobs to turn to make
you sound so good.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
See, you had to sound good.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You either sounded good or you were asked to leave.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
He was really good, really good, pure voice, pure voice.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
No knob turning, no nothing. That was him.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Who else lived here that you're like you were excited
to see or run into it because I had those
people when I moved here, did you Yeah? For sure,
I moved here and it was you know, for me,
it was all the guys like the Chestnuts and all
those not late eighties and nineties got oh yeah, and
so you know, listen to the radio my whole life
growing up and listen to the stay down at Little Rock,
(15:59):
Arkansas on Hot Springs are so on. When I moved
here that Joe Diffy. I got to spend a lot
of time with Joe. Yeah, And I got to know
him pretty well before he died. Like we would spend
time together because we'd perform. I think before we got
to know each other. The best was performing together at
the Opry, not not at the same time, but we'd
be on the same night multiple times.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And so you know, how do is it the Opry? Yeah,
doors are just open, they are and you just spend
time with the people that are there. Yeah. And so
for me that was exciting to get to see, like
the diffies. Kicks Brooks my first time ever playing the
Opry came into the room and was like, this is
what we do here. I'm Kicks and I'm like, you're
Brooks are done. This is crazy. So I wonder like
(16:36):
those those stories for you because I had my version
of that. It sounds like you did too, Oh I did.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It was like I was like the little sister, you
know and Dotty West, and.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
We're the youngest by far? Were you the young youngies kid?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
But Dotty West, Tammy Patsy, all the greats. They just
took me under their wing and I just loved them.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
When you were twelve and you signed a record deal,
how much did you understand what was happening with the
business And how much do you think your mom understood
with the business.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
My mom was pretty savvy. All I knew was I
want to sing and I want to be heard. And
if this is my avenue to do it and they'll
let me do it, I'm all in.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Did you ever sign one of those deals that maybe
wasn't the best deal and you learned later that what
you had signed.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I had Really I was lucky because I I had
people around me, not that many, but I did have
people that truly cared and loved me, which wasn't always
the case with artists.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, it seems like with young artists as well, like,
oh yeah, they're pretty vulnerable, they are business, they are personal.
But it seems like you have a pretty good experience
because you had good people around you.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yes, that truly cared about me, that weren't just in
it for the book and whatever. They really cared about me.
Starting with Red Foley.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
When you would sing I'm sorry with the whole crowd
singing back, was that among sometimes that the coolest thing.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, that was cool. What was cool.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
To me.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Was if you started a song and they started it
was like, oh lord, this really was a good song
because you don't expect it. You know, you want it,
but you at least I never did. I never expected it.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Growing up in a small town in the South and
then living in the Midwest to bed in Nashville, that
type of person. It's pretty similar. But when you're traveling
the continental you know, States, and you're in a Boston,
you're in a California and you're going wow, they or
you're in Japan and you're going, I can this is
so weird They know my songs. Yeah, I mean that
(19:11):
had to happen to you pretty young. There are people
that you're not like at all that love you and
know your music.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I had to feel strange but yet amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It was like surreal. I remember the first time I
went to Japan.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I was.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Maybe fourteen maybe, and we landed at the airport and
all these young kids were standing out there and they
had these little hats on and it said b LFC
and I thought, oh lord, somebody's coming in because I'm
(19:49):
just such I love all.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That, and I thought so when I got off the.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Plane, it meant Brenda Lee Fanclub and I was like, oh,
because I never dreamed I was known over there.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
How do you think you became so well known in Japan? Specifically?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Well, I sang in their language, plus I spoke in
their language, but I sang in English too, And I
went every year to let them know I appreciated their support, and.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
That's they reciprocated it.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, big way, in a big way.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
When did you start to learn Japanese?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
M when?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Let's see, I well, I went over there the first
time because I had a big hit in Japan. My
first big year was one rainy night in Tokyo so oh,
and Bradley, my producer, he said, you know what would
be good if you sing half in English and half
(21:00):
in Japanese. And that's what I did and it They
loved it, and all of a sudden, I'm invited to
tour and I went, gosh, I bet I went forty times.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Wow, yeah, you've been to Japan at least I've been
once and I was blown away.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Isn't it great?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
It's great, It's so great. It's clean. Oh, it's safe. Yes,
people are kind. There are no trash cans because there's
no litter, and if you have trash, you just keep
it until you get to it. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And if you go into a department store or a
drug store each store for that matter, and you're lost,
they'll take you to where you're supposed to go. They'll
say in their language, they'll take your hand. Now, I
don't know if they still do that, but that's what
they did when I was going every year.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I also felt like I was seven feet tall and
that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Oh yeah, I felt right at home.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So you put out the Friendaly Greatest Hits. It's digital,
people can stream it. It's also on vinyl. Why are
the greatest Hits? Why? Now?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
The label thought it was a good thing to do,
and I was proud that they thought enough to do it.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
A couple of things that I would think. One is
the song obviously Rocker around the Christmas Tree went number
one again, but also I'm Sorry went completely viral. Yeah, TikTok.
What is old as new, as old as new, as
old as new again? Yeah, and so that song was
getting millions and millions of stream Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
The Beatles open for you. I read that. Yeah, must
have been you know, it had to be the fifties.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Right, late fifties, early sixties.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, how did that come together? It's your man at
your mom or No, it was.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
A big tour. There was Dusty Springfield me.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
The Beatles, what were they at the time, at this
time we're talking about specifically, I'm assuming they're very young and.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Not very young, yeah, and really kind of like, I
don't know, not polished, not just raw. But I saw
the greatness in them, and you would have too.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
And this is pre ed sulovon.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Oh yeah. So I go back to New York.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And I go to my label, which was Decca, which
is now mc c A, which I'm still.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
On same contract, And I said.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I took a picture of them, and they looked like
your normal teddy boy would look and I took a little.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Tape and I'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
They walked in rank and file like they do, and
it got through playing and it was very quiet, and
I thought this could be bad, could be good.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
And I said, okay, what do you think?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And the president stood up and said, Brenda, we're very
proud that you brought this in, but this look will
never happen and this sound won't either either. Next year
they were playing the ballpark stadium, filling.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
It up like stadium wow. And when you saw them
the first time, was Ringo with them or was it
still pea best.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Pete was with them, but then Ringo came right along,
so I've I've worked with them.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
You've been there through all of it. Yeah, that's exciting.
Do you ever listen back to any year old music,
like every once in a while, put something on you
haven't thought about in a long time.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I do.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I listened back to like when I started at ten,
and I sound like Mickey Mouse on steroids, And I thought,
oh my lord, but I was ten.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
What would you tell that kid?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Now, I would tell them, if that's what you want
to do, you don't give up. People might give up
on you, but don't you give up on you.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And you would tell that to yourself as well. That's
the advice you'd give to yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Because and I didn't know if I was good or not.
I just knew I loved it and that's what I
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
So were you able to be a support for any
other artists like Patsy and you know you listed all
those wonderful women in the history of country music?
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Be able to do that with any artists?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Kind of repay that?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Yeah? And it was fun.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And I don't know how to put this, but today,
with all the mechanical stuff they have to use.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
You don't know if they're singing or not.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Even I don't, and I can usually tell. So if
somebody asked me an opinion on somebody new, I just
have to say, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
There's We're lucky that we can take live performances off
of like somebody's phone or YouTube, because there'll be people
that want to come up and do my show and
perform and we've not checked if they can. We've just
listened to the like that the studio version they come
in and then maybe they're not as good. So what
we do now is we'll do like super research and
try to go find some like natural yeah, just to
(26:53):
hear if they can really sing, because when you get
in the studio, obviously, like you said, you can make
anybody sound pretty good. You can't write a good song
make them sound pretty good. There you go, Hey, that's
how it's does what I need to wish they do
that to me make me sound good. When you listen
back to the songs from like the fifties sixties, can
you kind of hear the person you were like? If
(27:16):
you hear a song, for example, losing you early sixties. Little.
You're not old by any means, but you're a little older.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, I'm a little older.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Can you kind of hear that song and put yourself
back to where you work?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I can, because as a teenager in those years, I
wasn't allowed to date and or anything like that. So
all I had was my music, and that was my
(27:47):
heart beat, and I don't I never had the thought, oh,
I'm doing this because I'm going to be a big success.
I was doing it because I loved it and it
was my company. It was something that I could always
(28:09):
turn to that I knew would be there and it
wouldn't change, and that's why.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
What's your favorite song you've ever recorded? Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Owen Bradley was such a genius, and I had such
wonderful songwriters.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I mean, they're.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Writing great songs today too, don't get me wrong, but
they're not writing great ballads. And you know, when you
and I had a lot of foreign ballads like I
Want to Be Wanted and Losing You and those kind
of songs were overseas songs.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
So I it was the a team of musicians.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
It was Owen, it was Selby, Kaffeen, the engineer, it
was the Anita Kerr singers, it was Britain Banks and
its strings. It was a family, which doesn't happen today,
And that's why I stopped.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Recording, because it felt more like a business or a
machine in a family.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I mean, if you can't. I've been in the
studio and I'm just thinking it's going great and I'm
singing good and all, and one of the musicians may say, hey,
everybody stop because they heard a clunker that I didn't hear.
(29:41):
And that's how it was back then. If you did
that today, you wouldn't be working that session anymore.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
But it was.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
A cohesive thing between everybody. Everybody wanted to be good,
wanted it to be good. And I think that's the
difference in today and.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Sixties.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Today, maybe mercenaries have brought in just to go and
do the job and get out, get to the next session.
More than you got it invest themselves into the arts.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
You still like music, You're still like just listening to music.
I love being Do you get to like just pick
whatever you want to listen to? What do you pick now?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Lord?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Well, my scope of musicians is is a.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Little bit weird.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I like everybody from Ozzie to the Frank Sinaultra.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
You knows.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I'm all out there because I hear different things with
different people, and I try to figure out two, Okay,
why was that a hit?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Why was that a success?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
And of course it all boils back to y'all too.
Artists can't do anything unless you play it. I mean
they can, but it's probably going to lay on a
table or lay somewhere. So it's to me, we're all family.
We're all like, I want you to do good, you
(31:15):
want me to do good. It behooves you, it behooves me,
and it's not thought of that way today in the industry,
and it saddens me.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I have two final questions. Not your song, but what's
your favorite song of all time? If you had to
pick a favorite song, it can't be.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
That's too hard.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It's too hard. You can give me a couple and
I'll vamp for you, meaning I'll give you a couple
of mind way you thinking about yours? Blue Eyes Crying
in the Rain is one of my favorites.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Oh that's a great song.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
It's perpant so and I love ballads. I'm big Valley.
I am too because the baperience, Yeah, I feel like
I can really experience them.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
But I'm one of those girls too.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
When I was in France, of course I didn't speak
French when I'm went over.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
But I heard this song and it was love.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Be loveabouho said, this was I, you know, And I thought,
I don't really like that. And I'd go up and
down the sidewalk singing that song. And finally somebody tapped
me on the shoulder because I'm like thirteen.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
And they said, don't sing that, and I said, why
I like it? They said, you're singing about a toilet.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
What was this?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Oh song?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
What was this that? Do you even know what the toy?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I don't know, but they said, you're singing about the
toilet on the corner.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
I said, oh, well.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
The melody must have been good.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah it was. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Okay, last favorite song of all time? What is it?
That's not yours?
Speaker 3 (32:49):
You, that's not mine?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Not yours?
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Oh Lord, that's due now.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
It's really hard. You don't have to commit to it.
You can just say one now.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Okay, Oh gosh over the rainbow.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Judy Garland.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah, would I finally got to meet her.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
How old were you?
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Thirteen?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And what was the experience? Give me walk me through it.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I followed her to the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
What do you mean you followed her?
Speaker 3 (33:21):
I mean I was next to perform.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
She was laying out by the pool, and I thought, okay,
this is my chance.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
How old was she at the time, Judy.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Was probably early late twenties, early thirties. I thought, if
I don't go now, I'll probably never see her again
in my life.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
So I just brazenly walk.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Up and I said, miss Garland, my name is Brenda Lee,
and I am a huge, huge fan. You cannot believe
how you have influenced what I do. If you had
one piece of advice to give me, what would that be?
(34:08):
And she didn't skip a beat, and she said, don't
let them take away your.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Childhood, probably because a lot of hers was, yeah, taken away.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, so that's a memory I'll never forget.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
It's really kind of her to not just brush you
off and actually give you give.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Me a kernel of wonderful advice.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Brenday's greatest tits it's you can stream it. You get
the vinyl, the vinyl is always really cool to have.
It has I'm sorry it has sweet nothings. It has
I want to be wanted. Eleven of the tracks on
the album we're in the top ten of the Billboard
Hot one hundred. You are a joy to be Thank
you my friend and I Brett who lives over he's
an artist too, he says Brett Aldritch. She sings Christmas
(34:57):
song Okay, making sure we would always see a drive
around and we would be like we.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Just saw Brin run all.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
That was kind of our way of like checking in
each other. Can we just driving around so we' always
see a driving around.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
I love that. Tell m A, I definitely will now
you know I'm southern.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Hey, that's right. Thank you so much. Congratulations on all
your very recent success too, well, thank you. It's really
it's it's really amazing rushing to see that you went
viral again and you had a number one song. Yeah,
and that is that's who knew, who knew.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
After all these years after.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That, that's what you That's what gets you in this
business because you don't know what's coming. That's true, and
it's the it's it's the wanting to know that just
keeps you there.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yeah, I'm a big fan. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Love this thirty forty minutes we've just been together.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Thank you, and I love it too. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production
Because it is Christmas week. When we loaded this, I
thought it'd be fun to play the interview with Brenda Lee.
Now Brenda Lee has Rocking around the Christmas Tree. 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 eighty one on December eleventh. In this interview, she
(00:29):
talks about how Home Alone helped launch Well, I don't
will spoil it, but rocking around the Christmas Tree, even
though it was so many years after we talked about
playing the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. We
talked about her going to Japan when she was fourteen
and meeting Elvis and hanging out with Patsy Klein. Here
it is. This is our episode with Brenda Lee. Hello,
Miss Brenda Lee.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hello, it's really good to see you again and you
as well.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The last time that we talked, we were trying to
get that Christmas song up to number one. We were
a boy did it go to then?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And you did it?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Oh? I didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Well, you helped with it.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
That Rocking around the Christmas Tree went number one. Yeah,
that's really exciting.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
When you think of how old it is, it truly is,
and when you think it was written by a Jewish man,
it truly was.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So what's remarkable about that song? And then I definitely
want to get onto the greatest hits, But what's remarkable
about that song is that it has been around for
a long time, it has sustained and also it even
sounds like the audio quality sounds like a song that
was recorded many years ago. Yet it's so good. It
(01:40):
continues to not only just linger around, but again it's
always in the top two or three, and it went
number one. Finally, like the sustained success of that song
is unlike many songs. Ever, at what point did you
realize this song is going to just stick around for decades?
Speaker 4 (01:58):
You know?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I never dream in the world that that would be
my signature song. I always thought I'm Sorry would probably
be it. And that song was written by the great
Johnny Marks, who is Jewish, who wrote all the great
Christmas songs. And I said to him one day, I said, Johnny,
(02:21):
you don't even believe in Christmas. I said, how are
you writing these songs? He said, I don't know. But
when I sit down to write that's what comes out.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
When it first came out, was it a hit? Was
it a holiday hit? Or did it take a.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
While before it It took a minute. Yes, it did, And.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's surprising because usually a song has its biggest when
it's released, usually has a shot, and then if it
does a hit, it's kind of done.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, well, especially back in those days. But no, it wasn't.
I mean, it was played, but I'll tell you when it.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Really took off.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
One of my friends called me one night and said, Brenda,
have you seen the movie Home Alone? And I said no.
They said, well, your song's all over it. And I
said which song? And they said Rockin' And that was
really the catalyst that brought it to where it is.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So that means it had to have been out twenty
five or thirty years before the Home Alone? Right?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Probably?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, And you're right, I guess even for me, that
was when I and I was a kid. Yeah, that
was my introduction to that song.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I'll we darn.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So you grew up, You grew up as a young
young kid in Atlanta. Correct? Did you ever have roots
in Atlanta? Because I felt like you were traveling so
much so young.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I was actually I lived in a little town called Lithonia,
which is maybe eighteen miles from Atlanta, and I used
to do a show called John Farmer and the TV
Ranch Boys, and that was out of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
See were driving in Atlanta. Would your parents take you?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Huh? My mom would take me. My dad died when
I was very young.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And then there was a big, huge ballroom at that
time called the Sports Arena. People would go there and
dance and it was just a really fun place. And
I used to sing there every Saturday night with the
band from the TV station.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Where did your music passion come from?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I've often wondered that myself. My mother could sing, but
it wasn't like she sang to me or sang all
the time. We had a little radio, and I remember
my daddy he loved the Yankees, Mama loved the Dodgers.
So they would keep enough battery where they could do that,
(04:54):
and then I could listen to my music.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
So I started listening really e.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And you think hearing your favorite songs and hearing the
i'm assuming AM radio, that's what motivated you to start singing.
Did you have a bunch of friends, because I feel
like I watched a lot of TV because I don't
have any friends. Like that's why I think that's kind
of why I'm funny now too, is because I don't
have a whole lot of friends. But so I had
to develop that if you're listening to a lot of music,
(05:23):
would you just sit at the radio and listen and
memorize songs and sing long? And was that what you
would do in the evenings?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I had friends, you know, I was in regular school
and I had friends, but it was it was just,
well you probably know, it's something that drew you and
you really had no control over it.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And when you tell your mom you want to sing publicly,
is what is her reaction and how does she immediately
help you try to?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, I think they saw the talent, especially my mom.
My dad died when I was really young, and I
think she saw the talent and she saw the want
in me to want to do it. She was not
the kind of person or mother that would say, okay,
got it, you gotta sing tonight, blah blah blah. She
(06:19):
wasn't that at all.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
So she didn't push you to do.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
It, No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But she encouraged you to follow your passion absolutely, And
how did she do that? At first?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, radio, she let me listen to what I wanted
to listen to on radio. And then there was a
place called the Sports Arena in Atlanta. It was, like
I said, big old, huge ballroom.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
But how did she get you on stage there? Like
what she just asked?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
She was very brazen. She would say, my little girl
can really sing? Would you let her sing tonight? And
finally the band said yeah, and I did, and I
became a regular Saturday nighter.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I was ten years old.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Were you ever full of stage fright at that age
or did it feel so natural?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
It just felt natural.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
What singers did you like as a young kid that
you would emulate.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I don't know that I emulated anybody, but I loved
Hank Williams. I think he was probably my favorite. I
loved Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Ella Fitzgerald. I loved all
(07:35):
the older singers, not that they were old then, but
they were older than me and I got to meet
all of them and that was a dream come true.
And I just liked I never could identify with kitchy songs.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I liked the good songs.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You liked the mature adult songs I did, which had
to be a little weird for a kid to like.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
The magin Yeah, and everybody wondered, why do you like those?
You're ten years old? I said, I don't know, but
I do.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
We interrupt this interview to bring you a message from
our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
This is the Bobby Cast. How long did you perform
in Georgia before he started to travel around?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We moved to Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We were playing the Fox Theater and Red Foley came
to town and somehow or another he let me sing
a song on the show. And at that time he
was the host of the Ozark Jubilee out of Springfield, Missouri,
(08:53):
and he asked if I would like to come and
do the show, and of course we said yes. So
it wound up we moved there and I became a regular.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So you moved to Missouri? How'd you like that? Do
you remember it?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I do. I liked Missouri.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It was fun and I was doing absolutely what I
loved to do. Going to school too. Mama always made
me go to school. It wasn't like, oh she sings,
she you know, No, that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Your mom moved for you.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Yeah, wow, yeah she really did.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Like looking back now, is there a gratefulness? Is something
old sacrifice?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Of course, I couldn't be here without her, But I
couldn't be who I am without her either, because she
was my best publicity person, my best Okay, you can
do this. She was my everything in my singing.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
When did you start to come to Nashville.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I came to Nashville and I was I think I
was eleven.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Or twelve, So that's pretty quick then.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, so you're singing in Georgia at ten. Yeah, you're
in Missouri at eleven. Yeah, and about a year later
you're in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Do you move here or do you come here at
first just to kind of see what it's about.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
We came, but we moved really quick. Why Well, because
there was.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
More opportunity, There was more interest. People weren't afraid to
record a child thinking their voice might change, and you
put all that energy and finance into it, and then
it turns out their voice changes and they're not good anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know. I never thought about that, but I can
tell that was actually a thing by how you're describing it.
So there must have been reluctance then to invest in
you as a kid, because they thought as you grew
your voice would change and maybe you would not be
able to sing. Yeah, that's what they would say. So
who believe in you? Then? To invest in you and go?
I still believe that even if there is a voice change,
(11:04):
she'll be great.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Readfully, so the same, red fully, same redfully.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
What do you think you saw on you?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Goodness, nobody's ever asked me that question. I think the
thing he really saw me in me was the need,
the need to be able to help my family financially,
and the need to be able to sing.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
I love to sing.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Did you start to feel a pressure at eleven, twelve,
thirteen years old to support your family? No, you never
felt the pressure was never put on you. No, did
you feel like you needed to do even if there
wasn't a pressure. Do you feel like that's something you
wanted to do?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yes? Always?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Why?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I mean, I don't know. I would have sang for nothing,
you know, the money was just good, too bad. I
just love to sing always. And where that came from,
I have no clue.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
When you moved to Nashville and recorded, did you soon
start touring regionally or nationally.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
All over the world, all over the world.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I don't like flying now.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I don't either.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I can imagine flying over the ocean.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Well you know when you're twelve. Yeah, that's true, you know,
and you don't think about that. I don't like it now,
So I don't go as much as I used to.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
So you go all over the world, all over the world.
Did you feel safe as a kid singer?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
My mom was with me, my manager, so yeah, and
the band guys would protect me. I was like their
little sister. Sometimes they protected me too much like a sister. Yeah,
like I couldn't get in any trouble.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
When did you play the opry for the first time.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
I was ten years old, so that would have been.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Fifty four or fifty five when we moved to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I just went to the opera.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
It seamlessly slid in at the Ryman any other performers
that you listened to or liked in that first year
so that you're playing the opera, that they would play
the opera and you think it was cool to be
able to see them.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I loved Patsy Kline, loved her, loved her heart, loved
her talent, loved her generosity.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
She was.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Not affected at all by the industry. I loved that
about her, and she just kind of took me under
a wing, as did Dottie West, and we were friends forever.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Did you ever get to see Hank Senior at the opera?
Because I know he got some try they were like, hey,
don't come back around here no more. But did you
ever get to see Hank Senior or the operation?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I did one time?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
And how was that experience.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
A dream?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Really?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Because you know, I sang all his songs and had
hits with a lot of them, and to meet the
guy that wrote him, it's surreal almost.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And he had to be in his early twenties, right
young at that point.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Very young.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
What about Elvis?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Oh, Elvis was a trip. I loved Elvis, but he
was he was almost like a pretend person because he
was so good you couldn't believe he was real. He
was sweet, but he was firm, He knew what he wanted.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Knew what he liked.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He wouldn't really if he really truly believed in it,
don't try to convince him of something else, because that's
what he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Did you see him in town much in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Not a whole lot went to his sessions and watched.
And that's that's back, gosh, late fifties. That's back when
we didn't have all the knobs to turn to make
you sound so good.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
See, you had to sound good.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You either sounded good or you were asked to leave.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
He was really good, really good, pure voice, pure voice.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
No knob turning, no nothing. That was him.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Who else lived here that you're like you were excited
to see or run into it because I had those
people when I moved here, did you Yeah? For sure,
I moved here and it was you know, for me,
it was all the guys like the Chestnuts and all
those not late eighties and nineties got oh yeah, and
so you know, listen to the radio my whole life
growing up and listen to the stay down at Little Rock,
(15:59):
Arkansas on Hot Springs are so on. When I moved
here that Joe Diffy. I got to spend a lot
of time with Joe. Yeah, And I got to know
him pretty well before he died. Like we would spend
time together because we'd perform. I think before we got
to know each other. The best was performing together at
the Opry, not not at the same time, but we'd
be on the same night multiple times.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And so you know, how do is it the Opry? Yeah,
doors are just open, they are and you just spend
time with the people that are there. Yeah. And so
for me that was exciting to get to see, like
the diffies. Kicks Brooks my first time ever playing the
Opry came into the room and was like, this is
what we do here. I'm Kicks and I'm like, you're
Brooks are done. This is crazy. So I wonder like
(16:36):
those those stories for you because I had my version
of that. It sounds like you did too, Oh I did.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It was like I was like the little sister, you
know and Dotty West, and.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
We're the youngest by far? Were you the young youngies kid?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
But Dotty West, Tammy Patsy, all the greats. They just
took me under their wing and I just loved them.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
When you were twelve and you signed a record deal,
how much did you understand what was happening with the
business And how much do you think your mom understood
with the business.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
My mom was pretty savvy. All I knew was I
want to sing and I want to be heard. And
if this is my avenue to do it and they'll
let me do it, I'm all in.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Did you ever sign one of those deals that maybe
wasn't the best deal and you learned later that what
you had signed.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I had Really I was lucky because I I had
people around me, not that many, but I did have
people that truly cared and loved me, which wasn't always
the case with artists.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, it seems like with young artists as well, like,
oh yeah, they're pretty vulnerable, they are business, they are personal.
But it seems like you have a pretty good experience
because you had good people around you.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yes, that truly cared about me, that weren't just in
it for the book and whatever. They really cared about me.
Starting with Red Foley.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
When you would sing I'm sorry with the whole crowd
singing back, was that among sometimes that the coolest thing.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, that was cool. What was cool.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
To me.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Was if you started a song and they started it
was like, oh lord, this really was a good song
because you don't expect it. You know, you want it,
but you at least I never did. I never expected it.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Growing up in a small town in the South and
then living in the Midwest to bed in Nashville, that
type of person. It's pretty similar. But when you're traveling
the continental you know, States, and you're in a Boston,
you're in a California and you're going wow, they or
you're in Japan and you're going, I can this is
so weird They know my songs. Yeah, I mean that
(19:11):
had to happen to you pretty young. There are people
that you're not like at all that love you and
know your music.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I had to feel strange but yet amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It was like surreal. I remember the first time I
went to Japan.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I was.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Maybe fourteen maybe, and we landed at the airport and
all these young kids were standing out there and they
had these little hats on and it said b LFC
and I thought, oh lord, somebody's coming in because I'm
(19:49):
just such I love all.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That, and I thought so when I got off the.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Plane, it meant Brenda Lee Fanclub and I was like, oh,
because I never dreamed I was known over there.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
How do you think you became so well known in Japan? Specifically?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Well, I sang in their language, plus I spoke in
their language, but I sang in English too, And I
went every year to let them know I appreciated their support, and.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
That's they reciprocated it.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, big way, in a big way.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
When did you start to learn Japanese?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
M when?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Let's see, I well, I went over there the first
time because I had a big hit in Japan. My
first big year was one rainy night in Tokyo so oh,
and Bradley, my producer, he said, you know what would
be good if you sing half in English and half
(21:00):
in Japanese. And that's what I did and it They
loved it, and all of a sudden, I'm invited to
tour and I went, gosh, I bet I went forty times.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Wow, yeah, you've been to Japan at least I've been
once and I was blown away.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Isn't it great?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
It's great, It's so great. It's clean. Oh, it's safe. Yes,
people are kind. There are no trash cans because there's
no litter, and if you have trash, you just keep
it until you get to it. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And if you go into a department store or a
drug store each store for that matter, and you're lost,
they'll take you to where you're supposed to go. They'll
say in their language, they'll take your hand. Now, I
don't know if they still do that, but that's what
they did when I was going every year.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I also felt like I was seven feet tall and
that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Oh yeah, I felt right at home.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So you put out the Friendaly Greatest Hits. It's digital,
people can stream it. It's also on vinyl. Why are
the greatest Hits? Why? Now?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
The label thought it was a good thing to do,
and I was proud that they thought enough to do it.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
A couple of things that I would think. One is
the song obviously Rocker around the Christmas Tree went number
one again, but also I'm Sorry went completely viral. Yeah, TikTok.
What is old as new, as old as new, as
old as new again? Yeah, and so that song was
getting millions and millions of stream Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
The Beatles open for you. I read that. Yeah, must
have been you know, it had to be the fifties.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Right, late fifties, early sixties.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, how did that come together? It's your man at
your mom or No, it was.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
A big tour. There was Dusty Springfield me.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
The Beatles, what were they at the time, at this
time we're talking about specifically, I'm assuming they're very young and.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Not very young, yeah, and really kind of like, I
don't know, not polished, not just raw. But I saw
the greatness in them, and you would have too.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
And this is pre ed sulovon.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Oh yeah. So I go back to New York.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And I go to my label, which was Decca, which
is now mc c A, which I'm still.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
On same contract, And I said.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I took a picture of them, and they looked like
your normal teddy boy would look and I took a little.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Tape and I'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
They walked in rank and file like they do, and
it got through playing and it was very quiet, and
I thought this could be bad, could be good.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
And I said, okay, what do you think?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And the president stood up and said, Brenda, we're very
proud that you brought this in, but this look will
never happen and this sound won't either either. Next year
they were playing the ballpark stadium, filling.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
It up like stadium wow. And when you saw them
the first time, was Ringo with them or was it
still pea best.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Pete was with them, but then Ringo came right along,
so I've I've worked with them.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
You've been there through all of it. Yeah, that's exciting.
Do you ever listen back to any year old music,
like every once in a while, put something on you
haven't thought about in a long time.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I do.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I listened back to like when I started at ten,
and I sound like Mickey Mouse on steroids, And I thought,
oh my lord, but I was ten.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
What would you tell that kid?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Now, I would tell them, if that's what you want
to do, you don't give up. People might give up
on you, but don't you give up on you.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And you would tell that to yourself as well. That's
the advice you'd give to yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Because and I didn't know if I was good or not.
I just knew I loved it and that's what I
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
So were you able to be a support for any
other artists like Patsy and you know you listed all
those wonderful women in the history of country music?
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Be able to do that with any artists?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Kind of repay that?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Yeah? And it was fun.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And I don't know how to put this, but today,
with all the mechanical stuff they have to use.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
You don't know if they're singing or not.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Even I don't, and I can usually tell. So if
somebody asked me an opinion on somebody new, I just
have to say, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
There's We're lucky that we can take live performances off
of like somebody's phone or YouTube, because there'll be people
that want to come up and do my show and
perform and we've not checked if they can. We've just
listened to the like that the studio version they come
in and then maybe they're not as good. So what
we do now is we'll do like super research and
try to go find some like natural yeah, just to
(26:53):
hear if they can really sing, because when you get
in the studio, obviously, like you said, you can make
anybody sound pretty good. You can't write a good song
make them sound pretty good. There you go, Hey, that's
how it's does what I need to wish they do
that to me make me sound good. When you listen
back to the songs from like the fifties sixties, can
you kind of hear the person you were like? If
(27:16):
you hear a song, for example, losing you early sixties. Little.
You're not old by any means, but you're a little older.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, I'm a little older.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Can you kind of hear that song and put yourself
back to where you work?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I can, because as a teenager in those years, I
wasn't allowed to date and or anything like that. So
all I had was my music, and that was my
(27:47):
heart beat, and I don't I never had the thought, oh,
I'm doing this because I'm going to be a big success.
I was doing it because I loved it and it
was my company. It was something that I could always
(28:09):
turn to that I knew would be there and it
wouldn't change, and that's why.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
What's your favorite song you've ever recorded? Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Owen Bradley was such a genius, and I had such
wonderful songwriters.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I mean, they're.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Writing great songs today too, don't get me wrong, but
they're not writing great ballads. And you know, when you
and I had a lot of foreign ballads like I
Want to Be Wanted and Losing You and those kind
of songs were overseas songs.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
So I it was the a team of musicians.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
It was Owen, it was Selby, Kaffeen, the engineer, it
was the Anita Kerr singers, it was Britain Banks and
its strings. It was a family, which doesn't happen today,
And that's why I stopped.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Recording, because it felt more like a business or a
machine in a family.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I mean, if you can't. I've been in the
studio and I'm just thinking it's going great and I'm
singing good and all, and one of the musicians may say, hey,
everybody stop because they heard a clunker that I didn't hear.
(29:41):
And that's how it was back then. If you did
that today, you wouldn't be working that session anymore.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
But it was.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
A cohesive thing between everybody. Everybody wanted to be good,
wanted it to be good. And I think that's the
difference in today and.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Sixties.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Today, maybe mercenaries have brought in just to go and
do the job and get out, get to the next session.
More than you got it invest themselves into the arts.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
You still like music, You're still like just listening to music.
I love being Do you get to like just pick
whatever you want to listen to? What do you pick now?
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Lord?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Well, my scope of musicians is is a.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Little bit weird.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I like everybody from Ozzie to the Frank Sinaultra.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
You knows.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I'm all out there because I hear different things with
different people, and I try to figure out two, Okay,
why was that a hit?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Why was that a success?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
And of course it all boils back to y'all too.
Artists can't do anything unless you play it. I mean
they can, but it's probably going to lay on a
table or lay somewhere. So it's to me, we're all family.
We're all like, I want you to do good, you
(31:15):
want me to do good. It behooves you, it behooves me,
and it's not thought of that way today in the industry,
and it saddens me.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I have two final questions. Not your song, but what's
your favorite song of all time? If you had to
pick a favorite song, it can't be.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
That's too hard.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It's too hard. You can give me a couple and
I'll vamp for you, meaning I'll give you a couple
of mind way you thinking about yours? Blue Eyes Crying
in the Rain is one of my favorites.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Oh that's a great song.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
It's perpant so and I love ballads. I'm big Valley.
I am too because the baperience, Yeah, I feel like
I can really experience them.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
But I'm one of those girls too.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
When I was in France, of course I didn't speak
French when I'm went over.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
But I heard this song and it was love.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Be loveabouho said, this was I, you know, And I thought,
I don't really like that. And I'd go up and
down the sidewalk singing that song. And finally somebody tapped
me on the shoulder because I'm like thirteen.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
And they said, don't sing that, and I said, why
I like it? They said, you're singing about a toilet.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
What was this?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Oh song?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
What was this that? Do you even know what the toy?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I don't know, but they said, you're singing about the
toilet on the corner.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
I said, oh, well.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
The melody must have been good.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah it was. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Okay, last favorite song of all time? What is it?
That's not yours?
Speaker 3 (32:49):
You, that's not mine?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Not yours?
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Oh Lord, that's due now.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
It's really hard. You don't have to commit to it.
You can just say one now.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Okay, Oh gosh over the rainbow.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Judy Garland.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah, would I finally got to meet her.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
How old were you?
Speaker 3 (33:13):
Thirteen?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
And what was the experience? Give me walk me through it.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I followed her to the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
What do you mean you followed her?
Speaker 3 (33:21):
I mean I was next to perform.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
She was laying out by the pool, and I thought, okay,
this is my chance.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
How old was she at the time, Judy.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Was probably early late twenties, early thirties. I thought, if
I don't go now, I'll probably never see her again
in my life.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
So I just brazenly walk.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Up and I said, miss Garland, my name is Brenda Lee,
and I am a huge, huge fan. You cannot believe
how you have influenced what I do. If you had
one piece of advice to give me, what would that be?
(34:08):
And she didn't skip a beat, and she said, don't
let them take away your.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Childhood, probably because a lot of hers was, yeah, taken away.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Yeah, so that's a memory I'll never forget.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
It's really kind of her to not just brush you
off and actually give you give.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Me a kernel of wonderful advice.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Brenday's greatest tits it's you can stream it. You get
the vinyl, the vinyl is always really cool to have.
It has I'm sorry it has sweet nothings. It has
I want to be wanted. Eleven of the tracks on
the album we're in the top ten of the Billboard
Hot one hundred. You are a joy to be Thank
you my friend and I Brett who lives over he's
an artist too, he says Brett Aldritch. She sings Christmas
(34:57):
song Okay, making sure we would always see a drive
around and we would be like we.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Just saw Brin run all.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
That was kind of our way of like checking in
each other. Can we just driving around so we' always
see a driving around.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
I love that. Tell m A, I definitely will now
you know I'm southern.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Hey, that's right. Thank you so much. Congratulations on all
your very recent success too, well, thank you. It's really
it's it's really amazing rushing to see that you went
viral again and you had a number one song. Yeah,
and that is that's who knew, who knew.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
After all these years after.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That, that's what you That's what gets you in this
business because you don't know what's coming. That's true, and
it's the it's it's the wanting to know that just
keeps you there.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yeah, I'm a big fan. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Love this thirty forty minutes we've just been together.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Thank you, and I love it too. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production
Hosts And Creators
Bobby Bones
Amy Brown
Lunchbox
Eddie Garcia
Morgan Huelsman
Raymundo
Mike D
Abby Anderson
Scuba Steve
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