From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Dec 11, 2002  6:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Brenda Lee
 
BRENDA LEE (By Shaun Mather)

Born Brenda Mae Tarpley, 11 December 1944, Atlanta, Georgia

Brenda Lee was a child prodigy who in 1955 made her debut on national
television by the age of ten and was recording for Decca by the following
year. These early numbers, augmented by the cream of the Nashville
A-team like Owen Bradley, Grady Martin, Hank Garland and Floyd Cramer
are superbly controlled rockabillies, as pure Nashville as any of the country
pop the town made famous with Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, Jim Reeves et al.
Bigelow 6-200 is a rockabilly classic, Dynamite is dynamite, My Baby Loves
Western Guys is as good as anything to come out of Music City USA.
Rock-A-Bye Baby Blues, Little Jonah and Ring-A-My Phone are further
highlights of her early work all featuring amazingly raunchy vocals from
one so young.
It would be four years before she had her first major hit, the Ronnie Self
composition, Sweet Nothin's (# 4), again courtesy of the Nashville sound
machine. A hot streak began in 1960, with I'm Sorry, That's All You Gotta
Do, I Want to Be Wanted, Emotions, You Can Depend on Me, Dum Dum,
Fool # 1, Break It to Me Gently, All Alone Am I and Losing You all making
the Top Ten. Her hits became smaller by the mid-'60s.
In the '70s she devoted herself to country music and enjoyed many hits on
the country charts. The past few decades have seen her remain fairly low
key but recently there's been a well deserved renewal in interest. She was
inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1997 and into the Rock
and Hall of Fame in 2002. I just wonder how popular she'd become if she
looked like Jayne Mansfield, the body to go with her rasp - ah, I'll get me
coat.

Recommended listening:
The real fan will need the 4-CD box set on Bear Family (BCD 15772), called
"Little Miss Dynamite", covering the years 1956-1962. For the more casual fan
there are several good single-CD compilations, like "Rock The Bop".
Official website: http://www.brendalee.com
Autobiography: Brenda Lee with Robert K. Oermann and Julie Clay, Little Miss
Dynamite : The Life and Times of Brenda Lee. New York : Hyperion, 2002.
Recommended.