A few moments with Brenda Lee
By the time we set sail in January 2017, sixty years will have passed since Brenda Lee’s first recording session in Nashville at Owen Bradley’s famous studio when she was only eleven years old, and success came quickly in the pop charts. In all, there were fifty-five pop hits, including two Number Ones (“I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted”), most of them recorded in Nashville. Barely missing a beat, she picked up her career in Country music, scoring another thirty-five hits in the Seventies and Eighties. Two of those Country hits were with The Oak Ridge Boys, who will star alongside her on the 2017 Country Music Cruise. Brenda was a star overseas, too. Touring Germany in 1963, her opening act was the Beatles. So it has been an incredible career with much to talk about. We caught up with her at home in Nashville.
You’re probably the only artist who could work the Country Music Cruise and our sister Maltshop Memories Cruise, and you’re one of the very few performers to be a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame
You know what, I’m the only WOMAN who’s a member of both Halls of Fame. The thing is, I never thought of songs as rock or country, just as good or bad. It all comes down to the song. It all starts there. I never favored any songwriter, never demanded half of a song. I just always wanted the best songs—pop, country, or foreign--and I think I found a few. I always responded to great lyrics.
How did you hear that you would be inducted into those two Halls of Fame?
The presidents called me. Quite a thrill to get those calls, I can tell you.
Who dubbed you Little Miss Dynamite?
I had a record, “Dynamite,” that became a HUGE hit in Europe—here not so much. I went over to do some shows there, and I didn’t work the stage like other girls. I didn’t just stand there. I was all over the place. Someone over there called me “Little Miss Dynamite”… and it stuck!
So many childhood stars can’t sustain their success. Why do think you became even more popular as you grew older?
I can only attribute it to wonderful music and wonderful fans. When it’s all said and done, people make you or break you. You can’t do it without them. They either adopt you and love you, or they stick with you for a moment. You can’t be everything to everybody, and you can’t be Number One all the time—that’s why there’s numbers beneath One.
If you could tell today’s teenage superstars anything, what would it be?
A few things: Be true to yourself. If you record a song, make sure you like it because you might be singing it the next sixty years. And, as Sophie Tucker told me, always be nice to people going up ‘cause you’ll meet ‘em going back down.
Rock ‘n’ roll was quite the boys club in its early days. Did it feel kinda isolated out there when you were the only girl on a package show?
I guess the girls bought the records that the boys made. Yes, very often I was the only girl on a package show, but I was just glad to be out there, to be a part of it, and perform and sing. That was the love of my life. I didn’t even think about being famous. To me, it was always about performing, and to be able to perform was my gift from God. I’ve loved, respected, and honored it, and He has given me a long and unique career.
Tell us something that we don’t know about Brenda Lee.
There’s not much folks don’t know about me at this point. I’m a good cook, I’d say an excellent cook. I’m a voracious reader. Oh yes, and I have a rose named after me. It’s a miniature rose, of course. Dolly Parton has a rose named after her, and it’s huge.
Most folks might not know that you recorded the original version of “Always on My Mind,” either.
I did. Elvis covered my record, and then Willie Nelson covered Elvis’s version and made it into an even bigger hit.
You seem to have scaled back on concerts the last few years. What do you do when you’re at home in Nashville?
I do what most women do. I cook, I clean, take care of my house. I spend as much time as I can with my grandchildren, and I work with some charities.
You’ve sung some of your hits for fifty years or more. How do you keep it fresh when you walk out on-stage?
It comes back to loving what you do. You never get tired of singing the great songs. My producer all those years, Owen Bradley, just found some of the very best songs for me, and I still love to sing them.
Do you still get butterflies when you walk out on-stage or did you leave those behind in Georgia many years ago?
I still get butterflies but they fly in formation these days!
Any plans for a new album?
No, but that’s the thing about this business. You never know what’s around the corner. Right now, though. No plans.
Even though we’re leaving in January, will we hear “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree”?
If you come to see me perform in JULY, you’ll hear “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree.”
Did you enjoy working our sister cruise, Maltshop Memories cruise, and meeting the fans?
Loved it! Through the years some fans have become close personal friends. I love getting to meet people I’ve never met before. And after all those years on the road, it’s great being in one place and not traveling on planes from show to show. So come join me!
- Colin Escott © 2016