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S38E6: Brenda Lee: Rockin' Around | Clip

Brenda Lee had a fully formed career before even signing a contract

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Brenda Lee made appearances on television, radio and live shows all before she even signed a record deal. Her performances on “Ozark Jubilee” starring Red Foley at just 10 years old caught the eyes of executives at Decca Records, with whom she would eventually sign.

TRANSCRIPT

- My first TV appearance, it was like, I'm doing that?

They're letting me do that?

And it really was surreal.

It was almost an out of mind experience.

It was like, okay, I think that's me.

Let me look again.

(laughing) I did one in Atlanta, Georgia, it was sponsored by an ice cream company, and I got all the ice cream I could eat on Saturdays.

(interviewer laughing) So that was my pay.

And then I traveled with a gospel group called the Master Workers Quartet.

Because I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church, a lot of my heritage and my roots in singing came from the field of gospel.

- [Announcer] From the crossroads of country music, here's the "Ozark Jubilee" starring Red Foley.

- Mr. Foley came to town, Red Foley, and he let me sing a song on the show.

And at that point, he had the first network country television show, and it was called the "Ozark Jubilee" from Springfield, Missouri.

He asked me if I'd like to come back and do the "Jubilee," and of course, we just, chomping at the bit, we said, "Absolutely."

So for a year or more, we took the Greyhound bus after school on Friday, rode all night long, got to Missouri, did the show, it was live, got back on the bus, rode all day long Sunday, got in school Monday morning.

I was only 10.

A columnist by the name of Jack O'Brien, the great Jack O'Brien out of New York, wrote this glowing, nobody could believe it, much less me.

After I did the Red Foley show at the "Ozark Jubilee," that's where I met my manager, 'cause he managed Red, and he was from Dub Allbritten.

- And he heard her sing, and said, "Boy, I need to tell Paul Cohen at Decca Records about you."

They quickly realized this girl's got more talent than any of these other kids that are here.

She was a child prodigy.

- That's how we came to move to Nashville, to be in the center, to have a recording contract.

Doug took me over.

He had a vision for me.

He was like my dad.

- She had a fully fledged, fully formed career by the time she signed a record contract.