Brenda Lee biography, net worth, songs, bio, age, death, married, divorce, husband

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<a href="/biography/brenda-lee">Brenda Mae Tarpley</a>, better known by her <a href="/biography/brenda-lee">stage name</a> Brenda Lee, is an American <a href="/biography/brenda-lee">singer</a>. She scored 47 US chart singles in the 1960s while performing rockabilly, pop, and country music, placing her fourth in the decade behind <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley">Elvis Presley</a>, the Beatles, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles">Ray Charles</a>. Her 1960 single "I'm Sorry" and 1958's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," which has become a Christmas classic, are two of her best-known songs.

<h2>Background and Age</h2>

<a href="/biography/brenda-lee">Brenda Mae Tarpley</a> was born on December 11, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father, Reuben Lindsey Tarpley, and mother, Annie Grace, were not wealthy. They had to relocate often between Atlanta and Augusta, depending on the locations of the work her father was able to get. Brenda had a difficult childhood. Her family lacked resources, and their living conditions weren't optimal, with her being forced to share the same room with her brother and sister. Brenda always loved music, and she began to sing at the Baptist church every Sunday. At the age of two, Brenda could whistle the melody she heard on the battery-powered radio.

When she was three years old, she used to go to a candy store with her mother and sister. She would be given candy and coins for her singing. When she was six, she won a local singing contest sponsored by the local elementary school and won the chance to perform on an Atlanta radio show, "Starmakers Revue". She then started to earn money for her family, singing at events and on local radio and television shows. She became a regular guest of the country music show "TV Ranch" on WAGA-TV in Atlanta.

After Brenda's father died in 1953, her mother remarried a man named Jay Rainwater in 1955, and they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Jay Rainwater worked at the "Jimmy Skinner Music Center" record store, and Brenda sang there on weekends. Brenda also appeared on the show "The Peach Blossom Special on WJAT-AM in Swainsboro".

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<h2>Personal Life</h2>

Lee met Ronnie Shacklett during a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley">Bo Diddley</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Wilson">Jackie Wilson</a> concert at Nashville's Fairgrounds Coliseum in November 1962, and they married on April 24, 1963, less than six months later. Lee and Shacklett have three grandsons, Taylor, Jordan, Charley, and two daughters, Jolie and Julie (named after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patsy_Cline">Patsy Cline</a>'s daughter).

In 1999, Brenda got severely sick. She was diagnosed with cysts on her vocal cords.

<h2>Career and Net Worth</h2>

Brenda Lee's first great success was in 1955 when she met the Country & Western <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Foley">star</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Foley">Red Foley</a> at a touring promotional unit of his ABC-TV show "Ozark Jubilee". An Augusta disk jockey convinced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Foley">Foley</a> to hear Brenda singing before the start of the show. He was very impressed by her performance and decided to let Brenda perform on the show. The audience loved her singing, and they didn't allow her to leave the stage until she sang three more songs. Brenda became a regular of the Ozark Jubilee in Springfield. She signed a five-year contract for the show, but it was broken in 1957 by a lawsuit brought by her mother and her manager.

In 1956, Brenda signed a contract with Decca Records. A year later, she moved to Nashville with her family. She started recording songs that frequently entered the top charts. Some of the biggest hits of Brenda's career are "Jambalaya", "One Step at a Time", and "Dynamite", which earned her the nickname of "Little Miss Dynamite".

Brenda worked with the manager, Dub Allbritten and the legendary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Bradley">producer</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Bradley">Owen Bradley</a>. In 1959, her song "Sweet Nothin's" took fourth place in the Rock and Roll charts. "I Want to Be Wanted" hit the number 1, while "All Alone Am I" and "Fool #1" both hit number 3. She had many other top charting hits like "That's All You Gotta Do" (No. 6), "Emotions" (No. 7), "You Can Depend on Me" (No. 6), "Dum Dum" (No. 4), and "Everybody Loves Me But You" (No. 6).

The best selling track of Brenda's career was a Christmas song called "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". The song initially sold only 5,000 copies, but it later sold more than five million copies. In 1960, she recorded the song "I'm Sorry", which reached number 1 on the Billboard pop chart. This song was her first gold single and earned her a Grammy Award nomination.

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