L
ater known as Little Miss
Dynamite, as a child star from a
dirt-poor background, the former
Brenda Mae Tarpley certainly had an
incendiary start. She signed with Decca
aged 11 in 1956, charting her fi rst pop hit One
Step At A Time, the following year.
At 17 she was a millionaire. The 4ft 9"
fi rebrand fi rst shot to international fame in
Europe. At the end of a triumphant headline
tour of France, she was invited by producer
Jack Good onto Oh Boy!. Belting out Bill
Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?,
her appearance on the UK’s must-see
TV show catapulted her career into the
cultural stratosphere.
Brenda’s rockabilly back catalogue
already included blasts such as Bigelow
6-200, Let’s Jump The Broomstick, Rockin’
The Bop, Ballin’ The Jack, Hummin’ The
Blues Over You, and her nickname-giving
Dynamite. The biggest multi-million seller
of her career would be ’58’s jaunty evergreen
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.
As adept at upbeat numbers as
tearjerkers, in the 1960s the singer enjoyed
more chart hits than any other female. In
the US, Brenda garnered two No.1s – I’m
Sorry/That’s All You Gotta Do and I Want
To Be Wanted – as well as fi ve Top 5 hits and
fi ve Top 10s. During the diffi cult aftermath
of the Brit Invasion, her star still shone
bright, and she was surpassed by only three
other acts (The Beatles, Elvis, and RayCharles). As the New Musical Express noted
in 1973: “Sweet Nothin’s was followed by an
uninterrupted series of 32 American hits- many of which scored heavily in Britain –
two dozen, well-received albums and a total
unit sales-fi gure estimated at 75 million.”
In the 70s, Brenda went from pop to
country gold, with a string of hits extending
into the 80s and 90s, and the still-popular
performer has continued to make guest
appearances up to the present. The one
US star to have The Beatles open for her,
Brenda Lee remains the only woman to be
inducted into both the Rock And Roll and
Country Music Halls Of Fame.
Growing up in the States, who were your
musical inspirations?
To say that I didn’t have any sounds absurd,
so I’ll have to sound absurd! We didn’t have
TV in our home, at fi rst, didn’t have a radio.
I wasn’t exposed to other entertainers.
I just started singing when I was three years
old and it went from there. The only timewe got to listen to the radio was to hear
the baseball tournament fi nals and for the
Grand Ole Opry. That was the extent of it, to
conserve the batteries.
One of the fi rst singers I admired was
Hank Williams, and some of the fi rst songs
I sang were written by him. Later, I loved
Frank Sinatra for his phrasing, Nancy
Wilson for her soul, Tony Bennett because
of his style. One of my very favourites was
gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. Then I
evolved onto ‘the little French sparrow’,
Edith Piaf. Another great talent was Patsy
Cline, who despite the age gap between us,
was also one of my best friends. Actually,
I had to stop listening to those that I adored
as I found if I really love somebody, their
style will creep into my style.What are your earliest memories of
performing success?
I was discovered by country star Mr Red
Foley in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia.
I was on a weekly radio show with a DJ who
would take me over to see whoever was in
town. Well, Red was visiting with the huge
Ozark Jubilee [the fi rst US network TV
show to focus on country music], and asked
would I like to do a turn on his show.
I fi rst sang Jambalaya. For a year or two,
my mum and I would ride the Greyhound
bus to Springfi eld, Missouri and get
back to Augusta for my school on the
Monday morning.In 1959, a feisty American 15-year-old released
Sweet Nothin’s, soon to become her breakthrough
hit in both the US and UK. Six decades on,
the inimitable Brenda Lee looks back at it all
WORDS BY JULIE BURNS
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T“ONE OF THE FIRST
SINGERS I ADMIRED
WAS HANK WILLIAMS,AND SOME OF THE
FIRST SONGS I SANGWERE WRITTEN BY HIM”
W
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BANG
Brenda Lee