Lee rocks way into Hall of Fame

Friday, Dec. 28, 2001 | 8:51 a.m.

The Orleans is going to celebrate the new year with dynamite.

Brenda Lee, who acquired the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite" early in her lengthy career, will perform at the hotel's showroom Thursday through Jan. 7.

"I've been coming to Vegas since 1956," Lee said during a recent telephone interview from her home in Nashville, Tenn. "I still hold the record for the youngest headliner ever to appear there. I celebrated my 12th birthday performing at the Flamingo."

Lee says she has performed at almost every major venue in Las Vegas, some of which the Thunderbird are no longer around.

"I have been so blessed," she said. "My career has been so wonderful."

Lee, 57, was already a show business veteran by the time she starred at the Flamingo. The native of Lithonia, Ga., began singing professionally at age 6 and was cutting records by 11.

The late country singer and television host Red Foley launched her national career in 1955 when he put her on his ABC television program "Ozark Jubilee."

Lee had her first hit in 1957 with "One Step at a Time," and had since become one of the world's best-selling recording artists.

Among her classic songs are "I'm Sorry," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Break It to Me Gently" and, of course, "Dynamite," her second hit.

Lee also struck gold with such hits as "Fool No. 1," "Sweet Nothin's," "Jingle Bell Rock" and "That's All You Gotta Do."

In 1977 Newsweek compiled a list of the Top 20 Artists of the Past 20 Years, and Lee earned the No. 7 spot.

In 1984 the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences presented Lee with the Governor's Award, in recognition of her lifetime career contributions to the recording industry.

The petite singer with the huge voice has been a popular entertainer with both country- and pop-music audiences. In 1997 she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in March she will be inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"That's unusual," Lee said. "I'm the only woman in both halls. Most people have careers in one of the other, but I've been blessed with both."

Lee said she has never made an effort to focus on one style of music or the other.

"We just did the songs that we liked," she said, "and we just did them the best way we could. I guess the public liked them, too."

Lee noted that when she was selling records by the millions, there wasn't as much money in it for the artists as there is today.

"But I wouldn't trade a minute of it," she said. "The late '50s and the '60s was such a fun time in the business.

"There was a lot of naivete back then. Music people were running the recording companies, and they had a pure love of the business and the artists. They were not just in it for the bottom line. There was a lot of love for what we were doing, a lot of care."

Today, she said, the music business is all about packaging.

"It used to be all about talent, about doing a show and sounding like you sounded on your records," Lee said. "Today it's all packaging -- the look, the attitude, the whole thing."

It has been said that Lee paved the way for today's young artists, such as LeAnn Rimes and Britney Spears.

"Maybe I did," she said. "I love what the girls are doing now. In terms of buying records, the business is dominated by girls."

Lee said she likes some of the younger artists today, such as Mariah Carey, but her favorites remain older artists -- Elton John, Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin and Madonna.

"I listen to all kinds of music," Lee said.

She said some of the younger listeners enjoy her music, but most of her fans are more than 30 years old.

Lee hasn't performed much in the past couple of years. She took time off to write her autobiography, "Little Miss Dynamite: The Life and Times of Brenda Lee" (Hyperion Books, $24.95), which is scheduled to be released in March.

The book was written with her daughter, Julie Clay, and Robert K. Oermann, a Nashville reporter who covers the music scene.

Lee says the book is a candid look at her life -- her nonexistent childhood, her family's poverty and her associations with some of the top entertainers in the world, such as Elvis Presley and John Lennon, who is quoted as saying Lee "has the greatest rock 'n' roll voice of them all."

"I really liked writing the book, and I liked the time off," she said.

Lee enjoyed the time off so much, she says, that she's cutting back her performance schedule to only about 35 dates a year, which will allow her to devote more time to her family (which includes two daughters and two granddaughters) and community service work.

"I may do some recording in the future, but I'm not on a label right now and I don't know if I want back in that fight," Lee said.

The fight being against the corporate packaging trend.

"I can only be who I am," Lee said. "I can't be made into something different. That's just not my thing. I really don't know if I want back in that fight, although I do love the process of recording."