Brenda Lee admits she would 'jump out of clothes' in excitement for Christmas No.1

Brenda Lee, who will celebrate her 79th birthday tomorrow (Monday) as the oldest star ever to make No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, said she was so thrilled “If I could jump out of my clothes, I would. You can’t keep a good song down.”

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’s long, slow climb to America’s pop pinnacle easily surpasses the previous slowest climb to number one – an accolade held, ironically, by Mariah Carey, whose song All I Want for Christmas Is You eventually managed to top the chart 25 years after its release.

But Brenda, whose Rockin’ classic has been a perennial party favourite since its release in November 1958, insisted she has no intention of trying to wrest her rival’s self-styled title of Queen of Christmas.

Having been stuck at No 2 behind Mariah’s hit over several previous Yuletide seasons, she admitted: “It’s been a serious roadblock. But you know what? If something’s going to be in front of you, you want it to be good. And it was.”

By coincidence, Brenda revealed in an interview with Hollywood trade magazine Variety: “It was only a few weeks ago that I got the five-times platinum award from my label on Rockin’.”

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This signifies five million certified sales in the US while the catchy, rockabilly-style number – written by late songwriter Johnny Marks – also currently boasts almost 850 million digital plays on Spotify alone.

Brenda, who retired as a full-time performer in 2000, credits its astonishing longevity to a 1990 revival when it featured prominently on the soundtrack of blockbuster film Home Alone.

In one scene, child star Macaulay Culkin’s screen character turns it on full blast to pretend there is a party going on in a bid to deter burglars from robbing his parents’ house.

Brenda, who retired as a full-time artist in 2000, said: “I got a call from one of my friends and they said: ‘Have you seen the movie Home Alone? Your song is all over the place in that.’ And I said: ‘Which song?’ I think that’s when it really got the boost that started it.”

Rockin’ immediately took off again as a seasonal party and karaoke hit that has been performed by countless stars in concert and inspired a string of cover versions by modern performers.

Grammy Award winner Brenda, who has two children with Ronnie, her husband since 1963, as well as three grandchildren, enjoyed a string of other hits – including I’m Sorry, Sweet Nothin’s and I Want to be Wanted – as she cemented her fame, eventually becoming the first woman inducted into both the Country Music and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.

During the sixties, only Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Ray Charles sold more records than her in America – and she revealed in Variety that she briefly got to work with Britain’s fast-rising Fab Four on the German club circuit before they hit the big time.

She said: “They would be up there, singing songs that I’d never heard. John was my favourite and he came off the stage and I said: ‘John, where do you get all those songs?’, assuming they were covers. He said: ‘Oh, we write them,’ and I almost fell down.”

Learning they had no recording deal, Brenda took a tape of their material to her own label in New York and told executives: “I’ve got a great group. This is a raw-sounding thing but trust me – they’re great.” She also handed them a photo of a very young John, Paul, George and Ringo.

“So they listened and they said: ‘You know what? This look will never happen – and this sound won’t either.’ Next year, they were the biggest thing in the world.”