Brenda Lee Biography, Photos and Posters

Brenda Lee

Biography

Born: December 11, 1944
City and Country of Origin: Atlanta, Georgia
Music Training:
Awards: 2006 Jo Meador-Walker Lifetime Achievement award by Source Nashville; Most Programmed Female Vocalist, Billboard Magazine; Most Programmed Female Vocalist, Cashbox Magazine; World's #1 Female Vocalist, Record Mirror Award
Top Recordings: "Sweet Nothin's," "I'm Sorry," "That's All You Gotta Do," "I Want to Be Wanted," "*Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Emotions," "You Can Depend On Me," "Dum Dum," "Fool #1," "Break It to Me Gently," "Everybody Loves Me But You," "All Alone Am I," "Speak to Me Pretty," "Losing You," "As Usual," "Sunday Sunrise," "Wrong Ideas," "Big Four Poster Bed," "Rock On Baby"
Brenda Lee Biography: Brenda Mae Tarpley is an American pop singer, who was immensely popular during the 1950s and 1960s. She had the most charted hits of any woman in the 1960s, and only three male acts (Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and The Beatles) outpaced her. She was one of the earliest pop stars to have a major contemporary international following.

Born into a poor rural working class family Brenda was given the nickname Little Miss Dynamite after recording Dynamite in 1957; the explosive strength of the sound pouring out of her small frame amazed audiences and promoters. At age 6, she won a local singing contest sponsored by the elementary schools. The reward was a live appearance on an Atlanta radio show, "Starmakers Revue." Her father died in 1953. By the time she turned ten, she had become the primary breadwinner of her family by singing at events and on local radio and television shows.

Her break into big-time show business came when she turned down paid employment -- $30 to sing on a local television station in Atlanta -- in order to hear Red Foley and the Ozark Jubilee in Augusta. An Augusta DJ convinced Foley to hear her sing before the show. Foley was as transfixed as everyone else who heard the huge voice coming from the tiny girl and immediately agreed to let her to perform the Hank Williams standard Jambalaya on stage that night, unrehearsed.

she began her recording career two months later, on July 30, 1956 for Decca Records. Brenda Lee first attracted attention performing in country music venues and her first single, 1957's "One Step at a Time" was a country hit. However, her label and management felt it best to market her exclusively as a pop artist, the result being none of her best-known recordings from the 1960s were released to country radio. She would not have another country hit until 1969. Brenda Lee came to her biggest success on the Pop charts in the late 1950s through the mid 1960s with Rock and Roll styled hits. Her biggest hits during this time include "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)," "Sweet Nothins," "I Want to Be Wanted," "All Alone Am I" and "Fool #1."

In 1960, she recorded her signature song, "I'm Sorry", which hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart and was her first gold single. Even though it was not released as a country song, it was the first big hit to use what was to become the new "Nashville Sound" -- a string orchestra and legato harmonized background vocals.

Lee was popular in the UK very early in her career. She toured the UK in 1959, before she has achieved much popularity in the US. She had two top 10 hits in the UK that were not released as singles in her native country: "Speak To Me Pretty" peaked at #3 in early 1962, followed by "Here Comes That Feeling."

Her general popularity faded as her voice suffered damage and matured in the late 1960s, but she successfully continued her recording career by returning to her roots as a country singer. She was able to chart in Billboard's CW top ten twice in 1980.

She enjoys one distinction unique among successful American singers: her opening act on a UK tour in 1960 was a struggling foursome from Liverpool, England.

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