Brenda Lee Recalls Special Bond with 'Favorite Beatle' John Lennon
These days Brenda Lee is best known for the perennial 1958 holiday classic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," which she recorded when she was 12 years old. But during the '60s, she was the hottest female pop star on the planet — the Taylor Swift of her time.
She was such a huge star that she scored back-to-back No. 1 hits in 1960 with "I'm Sorry" and "I Want to Be Wanted" while she was still in her teens. Early in the decade, she even headlined a show where her opening act was The Beatles. Lee talks about her connection to her fellow rock and roll legends in the new PBS American Masters documentary Brenda Lee: Rockin' Around.
When I started touring in England, I was popular [there] before I ever was here," Lee, 80, says in the documentary. "There was this group that opened this show for me known as The Silver Beatles, who became The Beatles."
While hanging out with the Fab Four, she says, she forged an especially close connection to one of them in particular.
"John was my favorite Beatle," Lee recalls. "I loved them all, but John was, to say the least, irreverent, had a great sense of humor. He was magical. He was a genie in the bottle, and he let me have the cork. John Lennon said I was the first female rocker."
Source: Jeremy Helligar/people.com
