Brenda Lee's Christmas Classic Hits a New Chart Milestone

Sixty-five years after its first release, Brenda Lee's classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" has finally hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart — for the first time ever.

According to a Monday (Dec. 4) report from Billboard, "Rockin'" marks only the third time a holiday song has topped the Hot 100, and it's also the third time Lee has had a song at the top slot. But it's been more than six decades since she last occupied that space; the last time Lee was at No. 1 on the chart (with "I Want to Be Wanted") was in October 1960.

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"'s newest chart effort set a record for the longest time ever it's taken a No. 1 single to get to that spot. Lee's holiday hit first charted on Dec. 12, 1960, and it hit No. 1 on the chart dated Dec. 9, 2023, meaning the song's climb to the top took just 63 years — give or take three days.

Lee's newest No. 1 also allows her to set a new record as an artist: She now holds the record for the artist with the longest span of chart-topping hits over a period of years, with 63 years, four months and three weeks between her first and latest No. 1. Billboard reports that she beat Mariah Carey's record to get there, and she beat it by a long shot: Carey previously held the title with 32 years, five months from her first No. 1 hit to her most recent.

In related news, Lee also holds a new record for the longest time gap between No. 1 hits of any artist in Billboard Hot 100 history.

At 78 years old, Lee is now the oldest artist to ever rule the Hot 100 chart; she unseated Louis Armstrong's record (he was 62 when he hit No. 1 with "Hello, Dolly!" in 1964.

The newfound success of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was spurred in part by the fact that this year, Lee released the song's first-ever official music video. The video — filmed in a nod to the song's 65th anniversary — features cameos from Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker.

Lee first released "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in 1958, when she was just 13 years old. The song wouldn't achieve mainstream popularity until two years later, after Lee had success with a handful of other hit singles, but it hit No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. The song went on to have perennial success: It was featured in the movie Home Alone in 1990, providing the song with a resurgence in popularity.

Just before hitting No. 1 in 2023, "Rockin'" has spent a collective nine weeks at No. 2 on the chart between the 2019 and 2022 Christmas seasons.