Would you believe the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 this week is 65 years old?
Brenda Lee was 13 when she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and six and a half decades later, this perennial holiday classic reached #1 for the first time ever. Pretty mind-boggling, huh? I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this!
Growing up, I followed the music charts religiously. Every Sunday, American Top 40 was my church, Casey Kasem my preacher. I listened to the countdown on my portable transistor radio (god, I feel old!) without fail, wherever I was, cheering whenever songs by favorites like Journey or Springsteen or Prince raced up the charts.
American Top 40 helped fuel my love of music. In the ’80s, that was mainly pop. My tastes shifted as I embraced grunge and alternative rock in the ’90s and indie rock in the aughts. I love a wide variety of music, including Christmas songs. Over half the songs on this week’s Top 40 are holiday classics released decades earlier; it isn’t often you find Andy Williams, Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry, Perry Como, and Elvis Presley sharing chart space with Drake, Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, Jelly Roll, Bad Bunny, and Olivia Rodrigo. As far as I’m concerned, today’s so-called “popular music” sucks balls, so this thrills me.
And before you OK, boomer me, please note that I AM GENERATION X, a/k/a, the coolest generation ever. I would go so far as to say we laid the political, intellectual, social, creative, and personal ground upon which the Millennials today walk, talk, and text!
(Fine, Christine Henseler, a college professor and editor, actually used those words. But she’s not wrong!)
This type of thing never happened before 2018, when Billboard changed their chart formula to account for streaming — which, let’s face it, is how most of us (even this vinyl lover) consume music nowadays. If you obsessed over the charts like I did, I highly recommend giving the Hit Parade podcast a shot. It’s hosted by Chris Molanphy of Slate and dissects the history behind some of the most popular songs and artists to ever grace the Billboard charts.
As for Brenda Lee, she’s still rockin’ around the Christmas tree more than half a century later. At the ripe old age of 78, she just released a video for her holiday classic. It’s nothing short of irresistible.
Brenda just freakin’ deserves this. Kind of like Kate Bush’s 1985 masterpiece “Running Up That Hill” running up the charts to #1 last year, better late than never.
If The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping” ever achieves the same, I’ll be downright giddy.
What holiday classic would you love to see hit #1? What is your favorite genre of music? If someone pointed a gun to your head and asked you to name a Drake song, could you do it, or would your lifeless body end up on the floor next to mine?
Mark My Words 
Leave a comment