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\u201cShe is living proof of how important you can be and how long you can last if you\u2019re talented and you work hard and you truly love people,\u201d the country singer Tanya Tucker said in an email. Lee inducted Tucker into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October, and people are still talking about the dry delivery and killer comic timing of her speech. Lee has, Tucker added, \u201cthe best sense of humor known to man (or woman).\u201d<\/p>\n
For the past four years, \u201cRockin\u2019\u201d has peaked at No. 2, but in honor of its 65th anniversary, Lee\u2019s label is giving the song an extra push, including a new music video that features Lee lip-syncing to the tune she recorded as a teen, and even a TikTok account<\/a>. Only one woman and her whistle register seem to stand in the way of this decades-old song hitting No. 1.<\/p>\n \u201cNow I gotta worry about Mariah,\u201d Lee said with a feisty laugh. \u201cGet outta here, girl!\u201d Growing more serious, she added, \u201cOh, there\u2019s room for everybody. Her song\u2019s good, too. I love<\/em> her singing.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee and Carey have never met, but they would certainly have a lot to talk about \u2014 like how it feels to have a groundbreaking, history-making career reduced in the popular imagination to a seasonal novelty. Because while Brenda Lee is a Christmas queen, she\u2019s also so much more.<\/p>\n A LOT OF PEOPLE<\/strong> have stories. Brenda Lee has stories<\/em>. She first met Elvis Presley in 1957 (\u201cHe was the pretty<\/em> Elvis then\u201d) when she was 12, the night she made her Grand Ole Opry debut; he was watching in the wings. \u201cI\u2019m never star-struck by anyone, and I\u2019ve met the biggest,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I was tongue-tied when I met him.\u201d<\/p>\n Patsy Cline was her early tour mate and mentor (\u201ca good old broad, in the nicest sense of the word\u201d). While still in her teens, Lee shared bills with Little Richard, Chubby Checker, Dusty Springfield \u2014 the list is seemingly endless. In 1962, at the peak of her worldwide popularity, while in Hamburg on tour, the Beatles opened for her<\/em>. \u201cThey were raw musically,\u201d she said, \u201cbut they were fabulous.\u201d The admiration was mutual: Years later, in a Rolling Stone interview, John Lennon declared that Lee \u201chas the greatest rock \u2019n\u2019 roll voice of them all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n