Just as the holiday season brings a flurry of activity to our daily lives annually at year’s end, with get-togethers, shopping, and travel added onto everyone’s plate, so, too, does it bring a swath of chaos to the pop music charts, courtesy of a tidal wave of holiday-themed hits crashing back onto the Billboard Hot 100.
And this week, that yuletide bonanza sweeps a 65-year-old holiday classic to the top of the pop heap for the very first time.
First released in 1958, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” stands tall in 2023 as the new #1 song in the nation.
In taking its place at the pinnacle of this week’s musical mountain, “Rockin’…” sets a number of chart records for longevity, including the longest journey from a song’s release to the #1 spot for its six-decade-plus trek to the top.
And in an odd twist of fate, if Lee had taken “Rockin’…” to #1 when she first recorded it in 1958 at the age of 13, she would have been the youngest woman to ever hit the top. Instead, it makes the now-78-year-old Lee the oldest artist to ever hit #1 on the Hot 100, surpassing Louis Armstrong. The New Orleans jazz legend was 62 when his version of “Hello Dolly!” hit the top in 1964.
"Rockin'"s streaming numbers were aided this year by the release of a brand-new music video.
Since Billboard changed the Hot 100’s methodology to allow older songs to return to the chart if they are among the overall top 50 songs and have what the publication considers a significant reason for a sudden surge in popularity, the December rankings have been annually beset by an onslaught of Christmas tunes.
That change allowed “Rockin’…” to make its own annual return after originally peaking at #14 in 1960. In recent years, it climbed to a much higher peak, logging nine weeks at the #2 spot, always stuck behind Mariah Carey’s holiday perennial “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which has logged 12 weeks at #1 under the new rules.
Carey isn’t going away though. Her holiday hit sits at #2 this week, just behind Lee, and should challenge for a return to the top as the holiday season rolls on.