It's
Day #11 on “The
Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar”, and since
it's Tuesday, we're going to be featuring a Tuesday Timeline
piece...holiday style!
After
all, it wouldn't be a very good advent calendar if every entry within
had nothing to do with the holiday season, would it?
Fortunately,
for December 11, the topic selection was one of the easiest decisions
that I have ever made, as there was one subject that stood
out...mainly because it was the only Christmas themed topic that I
could find.
As
always, we'll talk about today's subject in great detail a little
later on within this entry. But first, we have other things to
cover.
Why
don't we take a look at some famous faces celebrating their birthday
two weeks before Christmas, shall we? Happy birthday to Liz Smith,
Rita Moreno, Anne Heywood, Jim Harrison, Reg Livermore, David Gates
(Bread), Donna Mills, Teri Garr, Lynda Day George, Bess Armstrong,
Jermaine Jackson, Brad Bryant, Lani Brockman, Peter Bagge, Nikki Sixx
(Motley Crue), Isabella Hofmann, Rachel Portman, Marco Pierre White,
Dave King (Flogging Molly), Jon Brion, Michel Courtemanche, Justin
Currie, Carolyn Waldo, Jay Bell, Gary Dourdan, Mo'Nique, DJ Yella,
Sean Grande, Willie McGenest, Daniel Alfredsson, Mos Def, Lisa Ortiz,
Ben Shephard, Sharif Abdul-Rahim, Roy Wood Jr, Rider Strong, Hamish
Blake, Clifton Geathers, and Hailee Steinfeld.
And
here are some of the big events that have happened on this date
throughout history.
361
– Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the
Roman Empire
1282
– Near Builth Wells, South Wales, Llwelyn the Last, the last native
Prince of Wales is killed
1789
– The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North
Carolina General Assembly
1792
– King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the
National Convention during the French Revolution
1816
– Indiana joins the United
States as the nineteenth state
1868
– Brazilians defeat an army of Paraguayans during the Paraguayan
War at the Battle of Avay
1905
– The Shuliavka Republic is established following a worker uprising
in Kiev, Ukraine
1907
– A fire destroys the New Zealand Parliamentary Buildings
1917
– British General Edmund Allenby declares martial law in Jerusalem
1920
– British forces burn and loot homes and businesses in Cork City
during the Irish War of Independence
1925
– Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas
Primus introduces the
Feast of Christ the King
1934
– The co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson, takes his
last drink and enters treatment for the last time
1937
– Italy leaves the League of Nations during the Second
Italo-Ethiopian War
1941
– Germany and Italy officially declare war on the United States
four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Americans declared
war on Japan. The United States later declares war on the two
nations shortly after their announcement
1946
– UNICEF is founded
1962
– Arthur Lucas becomes the last prisoner to be executed in Canada
1964
– Musician Sam Cooke is shot and killed by a motel manager in Los
Angeles, at the age of 33 on the same day that actor Percy Kilbride
(famous for playing Pa Kettle) passes away at the age of 76,
ironically enough in the same city
1972
– Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on
the surface of the moon
1980
– The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (CERCLA) is enacted by U.S. Congress
1981
– 900 civilians are killed in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the
Salvadorian Civil War
1993
– A block of the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia building, “The Highland
Towers” collapses, killing 48 people
1994
– One one person is killed when a bomb explodes on Philippine
Airlines Flight 434 – the captain is able to save everyone else on
board by making an emergency landing
1997
– The Kyoto Protocol is opened for signature
2001
– China joins the World Trade Organization
2008
– Bernie Madoff is arrested and charged with fraud in connection
with the Ponzi scheme he masterminded
And,
in 2012, the Tuesday Timeline flashed back to the following date...
December
11, 1944.
Now,
as it turns out, December 11, 1944 happens to be the birthdate of at
least three famous faces. I already mentioned Teri Garr and Lynda
Day George, who are both turning 68 today...but there's one other
lady who is also turning 68 years old today. And this is a lady who
started in the music business quite young. Younger than Justin
Bieber...younger than Selena Gomez...younger than Britney Spears...
...though,
not quite as young as the Olsen Twins.
The
ironic thing about this lady is that one of her most famous songs is
often played during the holiday season...and that it actually took a
couple of years for the song to gain in popularity. I'll have more
on that story as we proceed.
But
first things first, why don't we wish a happy 68th
birthday to singer Brenda Lee, the subject of today's Tuesday
Timeline!
Born
Brenda Mae Tarpley on December 11, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia, her
childhood was filled with its hardships. The family moved around a
lot because of her father constantly going where the jobs were, and
she grew up poor. She ended up sharing a bed with her two siblings,
and lived in small, cramped houses without any running water or
bathroom facilities. In order for her to forget about her domestic
hardships, Brenda found solace in the Baptist Church, where she would
sing at every Sunday service.
TRIVIA:
Brenda's father, Ruben Tarpley, was a skilled Southpaw baseball
pitcher, who spent eleven years in the U.S. Army playing baseball.
This was despite a height of 5'7”, which was relatively short for a
baseball player...apparently.
Brenda
loved singing, but then again, she was sort of a musical prodigy.
When Brenda was just toddler aged, she was completely drawn to the
little battery-powered radio that her parents had in the kitchen, and
when she was just two, she could already whistle some of the tunes
that had played on air. Brenda also recalled instances in which she
was three years old and her mother and sister would often have her
performing inside a candy store, earning pieces of candy, or actual
money from the customers of the store!
So,
there you have it. I suppose you could say that she started
performing at the ripe old age of three. Take that, Honey Boo Boo!
Brenda,
with her voice and stage presence quickly got her noticed by the time
she was six years old. At that age, she won an elementary school
contest where the prize was an appearance on the Atlanta radio
program Starmakers Revue.
When
Brenda was eight years old, her father passed away, which inevitably
made her the family's main breadwinner by the time she was ten. Talk
about pressure! It didn't matter much to Brenda though, as she had a
lot of fun singing at radio and television gigs. She also was a
regular guest on the country music show “TV Ranch”, where she had
to stand on a wooden crate in order to perform, due to her short
stature. The family briefly moved to Cincinnati, Ohio when Brenda's
mother remarried, but eventually moved back to Augusta, Georgia,
where she performed on The
Peach Blossom Special.
And
then in 1955, Brenda Lee ended up getting her big break. It began
with her turning down $30 to appear on a Swainsboro radio station in
order for her to see Red Foley and a touring promotional unit for his
show Ozark Jubilee.
A DJ from Augusta had persuaded Foley to listen to the then
10-year-old Brenda sing before the show began. Foley agreed, and
allowed her to perform the song “Jambalaya” on stage,
unrehearsed. And as soon as Brenda started singing, he had the
following to say about it.
“I
still get cold chills thinking about the first time I heard that
voice. One foot started patting rhythm as though she was stomping out
a prairie fire but not another muscle in that little body even as
much as twitched. And when she did that trick of breaking her voice,
it jarred me out of my trance enough to realize I'd forgotten to get
off the stage. There I stood, after 26 years of supposedly learning
how to conduct myself in front of an audience, with my mouth open two
miles wide and a glassy stare in my eyes.”
The
end result was that the audience gave her a standing ovation, and she
ended up performing three more songs as an encore! Some time later,
Brenda landed a recording contract, and the song that she sang for
Foley that fateful day, “Jambalaya”, became her first single.
Now,
it did take some time for Brenda Lee to make it big in the world of
music. It wasn't really until she released 1960's “I'm Sorry”.
That song was the first #1 hit for Brenda, and it even won her a
Grammy nomination. It was also the first of nine consecutive Top 10
songs for Lee between 1960 and 1962...a record that remained intact
until Madonna broke it in 1986. Lee's ability to adapt to several
genres of music (including country, rockabilly, and pop) and her
demeanor and charm helped her have thirty-seven singles charting on
various charts, and helped her become inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and the Country Music Hall
of Fame! A triple threat, that Brenda Lee.
And
one of Brenda Lee's biggest hits is a holiday standard that has
delighted audiences every December for five decades, and has been
covered by a multitude of artists including Bill Haley & His
Comets, The Partridge Family, Amy Grant, Cyndi Lauper, Hanson,
Alabama, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Simpson, Toby Keith, and LeAnn Rimes.
ARTIST:
Brenda
Lee
SONG:
Rockin'
Around the Christmas Tree
ALBUM:
N/A
(was a single release)
DATE
RELEASED: November
1958
PEAK
POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:
#14
If
you can believe it, Brenda Lee was just thirteen years old when she
recorded “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree”. Thirteen!
Certainly doesn't sound like the voice of a teenager, does it?
This
is a song that had a couple of guest musicians jamming alongside Lee,
most notably Hank Garland's guitar playing, and Boots Randolph
contributing the saxophone solo.
Although
the single was initially released twice (once in 1958 and once in
1959), both times it was pressed, the general public was sort of
lukewarm to it. It really wasn't until Brenda Lee scored her first
#1 hit with “I'm Sorry” that the song began to take off. By
Christmas 1960, the song was already climbing the charts, eventually
peaking at #14 on Billboard. The song continued to chart on
Billboard's Christmas Singles Charts for years after its release,
peaking at the #3 spot in December 1965...a little over seven years
after its initial release!
It
is estimated that as of December 25, 2011, the song has been
downloaded almost 700,000 times, making it the fourth most downloaded
Christmas single in SoundScan history. The song also appears in
several films, including a rather memorable scene in the 1990 film,
“Home Alone”.
And
isn't it a great song? It's a song all about family traditions like
singing songs (or rocking) around a gigantic tree, enjoying pumpkin
pie, and dancing merrily. It's one of those feel good songs that
seems to put everyone in the holiday spirit, and to be honest with
you, I have to say that her version is the best interpretation of
this song.
These
days, Brenda Lee doesn't really perform much. She still records the
occasional album, but hasn't had a huge hit on the charts since the
early 1980s. These days, she enjoys residing in the city of
Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, Ronnie Shacklett. She
released an autobiography in 2002 with the title Brenda
Lee: Little Miss Dynamite,
and she won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2009.
But
then, what else is to be expected? She has been inducted as a legend
in several genres of music, had one of the most successful Christmas
singles ever released, and she is probably one of the only people who
can claim to have The Beatles as one of her opening acts!
And
she was born 68 years ago today, on December 11, 1944.
That
wraps up another day of the advent calendar. It's triple twelve day
tomorrow, and to celebrate it, we're going to take a look at a board
game that up until 2004 had twelve items to remove from a very sick
patient...
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