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Song of the Day #3,848: ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ – Brenda Lee

When Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ hit #9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 this week, it was her 13th song to reach the Top 10 of that chart. She was a hit machine.

In fact, through the decade of the 60s, only The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles landed more songs on Billboard’s U.S. charts.

Even more impressive is that she scored most of those hits before reaching adulthood. The pint-sized singer was a regular performer on TV and radio when she was only 9 years old and landed her first #1 (‘I’m Sorry’) at 16.

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Song of the Day #3,847: ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ – Bobby Helms

The rest of this week’s Hot 100 entries are Christmas songs. I thought maybe that was a common occurrence during the season, but looking at this time of year over the past half decade or so, I don’t see anything like this year’s influx of Christmas titles.

Are people just in a jollier mood? Trying to forget that Donald Trump is the U.S. president? Something else?

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Song of the Day #3,846: ‘Happier’ – Marshmello & Bastille

At #7 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 is a collaboration between the American DJ/producer Marshmello and the British band Bastille.

Bastille’s last hit was ‘Pompeii,‘ which reached the Top 10 of this chart in early 2014. This is Marshmello’s first time in the Top 10, though he did reach #11 in mid-2018 with the song ‘Friends.’

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Song of the Day #3,845: ‘This Perfect Dress’ – Maria McKee

This is the third song from Maria McKee’s Life is Sweet to pop up on Random Weekends. Given that this is the only album of hers I own, 12 songs in total, that’s statistically more significant than the fifth random White Stripes song posted yesterday.

Each time a song from this album has surfaced, I’ve had the same reaction, finding it edgier and more intriguing than I expected.

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Song of the Day #3,844: ‘The Air Near My Fingers’ – The White Stripes

The Random iTunes Fairy has a thing for The White Stripes. Though I have only three of the band’s albums in my library, they have now shown up five times as Random Weekend selections, with four of those selections coming from the celebrated 2003 album Elephant.

None of those songs were ‘Seven Nation Army,’ the band’s most enduring classic, so I guess the Random iTunes Fairy has a thing for deep cuts, too.

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