Brenda Lee

史上唯一一位同时荣膺摇滚名人堂与乡村名人堂的女性歌手，她表演生涯亦是一个美妙奇迹；她的成就来自于天赋异禀歌喉，6岁时便赢得乔治亚州歌唱比赛，开启公开表演序幕。以11岁稚龄便受到颇负盛名乡村歌手Red Foley发掘，替她签下第一份正式合约。 Brenda Lee的歌声就这么陪伴着世人至今。
 
6岁对一般人而言或许还在唱儿歌的年纪，Brenda Lee却能超龄地投入感情来诠释歌曲，让她大放异彩，对她而言，一切只是发自内心自然随乐流泄。这也使她童年异于他人，并在不间断的表演中度过；无论是电台或是电视节目，甚至曾在赌城拉斯维加斯领衔驻场演唱。在11岁时正式与唱片公司签约，晋身歌手行列，早期歌曲带有Rckabilly味道，单曲《Dynamite》替她获得「Little Miss Dynamite」封号。接下来的单曲更在榜上有显著突破，性感甜蜜的＜Sweet Nothin's＞攀升至Top 4、抒情感人小品＜I'm Sorry＞创下第一首冠军单曲。其后翻唱义大利文＜I Want To Be Wanted＞，同获冠军后冠，Brenda的触角和天赋更深入其他语言歌曲，包括希腊文、俄语和法文，甚至远赴重洋到英国去录音＜Is It True?＞，而当时替她伴奏的乐手是后来赫赫有名Led Zeppelin的Jimmy Page。在发行一连串抒情或带有摇滚风味歌曲后，Brenda已成年也拥有丰硕排行榜成绩，选择回归幼年熟悉的乡村音韵。与她合作乐手向来非泛泛之辈，诸如Dolly Parton、Willy Nelson、K.D. Lang和近年越趋活跃的Loretta Lynn。重唱排行佳作＜Fool＞更替原唱者Loretta Lynn获得个人唱片合约，转战乡村的Brenda不仅如鱼得水，在乡村榜成绩也不亚于流行榜，更进一步打入成人抒情榜成为常胜军。
 
by Richie Unterberger
 
One of the biggest pop stars of the early 60s, Brenda Lee hasnt attracted as much critical respect as she deserves. She is sometimes inaccurately characterized as one of the few female teen idols. More crucially, the credit for achieving success with pop-country crossovers usually goes to Patsy Cline, although Lees efforts in this era were arguably of equal importance. While she made few recordings of note after the mid-60s, the best of her first decade is fine indeed, encompassing not just the pop ballads that were her biggest hits, but straight country and some surprisingly fierce rockabilly.
 
Lee was a child prodigy, appearing on national television by the age of ten, and making her first recordings for Decca the following year (1956). Her first few Decca singles, in fact, make a pretty fair bid for the best preteen rock & roll performances this side of Michael Jackson. BIGELOW 6-200, Dynamite, and Little Jonah are all exceptionally powerful rockabilly performances, with robust vocals and white-hot backing from the cream of Nashvilles session musicians (including Owen Bradley, Grady Martin, Hank Garland, and Floyd Cramer). Lee would not have her first big hits until 1960, when she tempered the rockabilly with teen idol pop on Sweet Nothins, which went to the Top Five.
 
The comparison between Lee and Cline is to be expected, given that both singers were produced by Owen Bradley in the early 60s. Naturally, many of the same session musicians and backup vocalists were employed. Brenda, however, had a bigger in with the pop audience, not just because she was still a teenager, but because her material was more pop than Clines, and not as country. Between 1960 and 1962, she had a stunning series of huge hits: Im Sorry, I Want to Be Wanted, Emotions, You Can Depend on Me, Dum Dum, Fool #1, Break It to Me Gently, and All Alone Am I all made the Top Ten. Their crossover appeal is no mystery. While these were ballads, they were delivered with enough lovesick yearning to appeal to adolescents, and enough maturity for the adults. The first-class melodic songwriting and professional orchestral production guaranteed that they would not be ghettoized in the country market.
 
Lees last Top Ten pop hit was in 1963, with Losing You. While she still had hits through the mid-60s, these became smaller and less frequent with the rise of the British Invasion (although she remained very popular overseas). The best of her later hits, Is It True?, was a surprisingly hard-rocking performance, recorded in 1964 in London with Jimmy Page on guitar. 1966s Coming on Strong, however, would prove to be her last Top 20 entry.
 
In the early 70s, Lee reunited with Owen Bradley and, like so many early white rock & roll stars, returned to country music. For a time she was fairly successful in this field, making the country Top Ten half-a-dozen times in 1973-1974. Although she remained active as a recording and touring artist, for the last couple of decades shes been little more than a living legend, directing her intermittent artistic efforts to the country audience.