Brenda Lee began working as a professional singer at just eight years old to support her family. She made waves throughout her career in a variety of genres including pop, country and rock.
“I loved to sing, and I didn’t care if anybody listened,” said Brenda. “I would sing all day long if they had let me. I loved it. Still do.”
- From age eight to 18 when she's an active professional.
Those first 10 years, she's a kid.
She didn't know what the heck's going on.
I mean, she's just going, "Go there and sing," and she goes there and sings, and everybody's happy.
♪ History tonight ♪ ♪ The power of one hour of love's ♪ - It was like, is this really happening?
Am I really doing this?
Am I gonna be able to do this and help my family and help my siblings?
And that's how it felt to me.
And I loved it.
I loved to sing.
And I didn't care if anybody listened.
I would sing all day long if they had let me.
I loved it.
Still do.
- [Interviewer] You have sold over a 100 million records and it's all genres, right?
- [Brenda] It's pop, and country, and rock, and started out rockabilly, then went full bang into rock and roll when it first started, along with Elvis, and I was the first female rocker.
Then went into pop, and then had a wonderful career in country.
- We think about all these raucous kind of rockabilly songs that she did, but she really was a torch singer.
- When I was little, my mother would sing me to sleep.
My mother was a pretty darn good singer and I didn't know the songs, but I knew I loved the songs.
And when I got old enough to say, "Mom, what songs were those?"
She told me they were Hank Williams songs.
So I cut my teeth on Mr. Hank.
♪ I got a feeling called the blues, oh Lord ♪ ♪ Since my baby said goodbye ♪ - We couldn't afford batteries all the time.
Daddy had to listen and Mama too.
The Yankees and the Dodgers play.
Daddy was Yankee, Mama was Dodger.
And I wanted to listen to the Grand Ole Opry.
- Back in the '40s and even into the '50s, the radio was what we think of television today is what radio was to that generation of Americans.
People would rather give up their refrigerators than give up their radios.
It was your entertainment, it was your source of news, it was everything.
- Every small city in the United States had a radio station.
- Radio made so many artists.
Radio was our Bible.
We had a variety of different types of music all on one station.
♪ I looked over Jordan, and what did I see ♪ - Being a little girl in a small town where no one did this for a living, you know?
If you sang, you were in the church choir.
(upbeat music)
