It’s that time of the year again when it’s socially acceptable to play Christmas music on the radio – and Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas tree will undoubtedly be on repeat.

The legendary Christmas track was first released in 1958 but only sold 5,000 copies and sadly failed to make a dent in the charts.

The tune is certainly an earworm, partly due to Brenda’s mature vocals and sultry rasp.  

However, Brenda was just 13 years old during the recording – a surprising fact that has left fans in disbelief, having assumed she was much older. 

Sharing a clip of the festive track to social media, TikTok user Ellie wrote: ‘Me remembering this is literally a 13-year-old child singing and not a 60-year-old woman.’

‘I beg your jolliest pardon?’ one baffled woman commented.

Another user could not quite believe it and wrote: ‘You are joking.’

While a third said: ‘I was today years old when I found this out.’

Fans have been left mindblown after finding out Brenda Lee’s real age when she sang Christmas hit Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (pictured on the album cover) 

Speaking of the song that has now become a staple in festive playlists, Brenda said in a 2015 interview with the Tennessean: ‘It was magic, and I think we all knew it’ (pictured that year)

As some fans of the song struggled to come to terms with what they had learned, others flooded the comments with similarly mind-boggling facts.

One wrote: ‘LeAnn Rimes was 13 years old when she recorded her song Blue.’

And another pointed out that Judy Garland was only 16 when she sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.

A year before she rocked around the Christmas tree, Brenda achieved her first Billboard hit at the age of 12 with One Step at a Time. 

Songwriter Johnny Marks, who had previously penned Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Holly Jolly Christmas, heard this single and specifically asked for Brenda to sing his new song.

Although she was known as Little Miss Dynamite because of her powerful voice and 4ft 9 stature, young Brenda was hesitant about taking on the track at such a young age.

Fans of the Christmas hit took to the comments on TikTok to share their disbelief

Sharing a clip of the track on TikTok, Ellie wrote: ‘Me remembering this is literally a 13-year-old child singing and not a 60-year-old woman’

But she also remembered how comfortable producer Owen Bradley made her feel during the recording by setting up a Christmas tree and lights in the studio, as well as turning the air conditioning on to mimic a crisp winter’s day despite it being swelteringly hot outside.

‘I thought that was so special,’ the singer told the Tennessean.

Two years after Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree was originally released, Brenda started to make a name for herself and the Christmas song started to take over American airwaves.

It charted again in 1961 and 1962 before peaking as high as number three on Billboard’s Christmas Singles chart.

Speaking of the song that has now become a staple in many festive playlists, Brenda said in a 2015 interview with the Tennessean: ‘It was magic, and I think we all knew it. 

‘It took a few years to take off, but once it did, it really did.’

Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas tree was first released in 1958 but only sold 5,000 copies. Pictured in December 2023

She was known as Little Miss Dynamite because of her powerful voice and 4’9” stature

Since its release, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree has sold over 25million copies worldwide and famously features in the film Home Alone when Kevin McAlister played by Macauley Culkin hosts his own Christmas bash.

Brenda herself went on to sell more than 100 million records globally and became Billboard’s Top Female Artist of the Decade in the sixties.

She has a Grammy Award, four NARM Awards, three NME Awards, and five Edison Awards under her belt and became the first women to be inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Just last year she was named by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest singers of all time.