Chart entered : 17 March 1960
Chart peak : 4
Number of hits : 22
It's about time we had a female rocker and here she is in the form of 15-year old Brenda, our first artist who's still under 70 at the time of writing.
Brenda was born Brenda Tarpley to a dirt-poor family in Georgia in 1944. The family moved around looking for work. Brenda is supposed to have been able to sing on leaving her pram and she was singing for a local radio station from the age of six. In 1955 she came to the attention of country singer Red Foley who got her onto his networked TV show Ozark Jubilee and a recording contract soon followed.
Brenda started recording for Decca when she was just 11 starting with a cover of Hank Williams's "Jambalaya". Taking advantage of her short stature they claimed she was only nine. It's a straight country take on the song and sounds like Hank played at the wrong speed with Brenda's affected hiccupping the wrong side of annoying. Brunswick caught up in the UK with her Christmas novelty single "I'm Gonna Lassoo Santa Claus" which has a nice philanthropic message but you only want to hear it once. Her next single, "One Step At A Time" in 1957 , opened the door to rock and roll with its sax break and heavy backbeat behind Brenda's rapidly maturing vocals and was rewarded with a first hit in the States. Brunswick doesn't seem to have been able to keep up with the schedule and so some of her 50s hits in the US weren't released here until the following decade. Her next single "Dynamite" was released in both territories and gave rise to her longstanding nickname but was only a minor hit in the States. I'd like to think we resisted the notion of a 12 year old singing "Hey baby let's make history tonight /The power of one hour of love's delight" on the grounds of taste. Apart from "Rockin Around The Christmas Tree" in 1958 ( number 14 in the US ) the rest of the decade was hitless on either side of the Atlantic. The British releases were a passable version of Ray Charles's "Ain't That Love" , a decent rockabilly number "Ring-A My Phone" and an over-frantic version of "Bill Bailey Won't You please Come Home" with Yakety-Yak style sax. In 1959 she toured the UK.
"Sweet Nothin's" restored her fortunes in the States as well as getting her off the mark here. For some reason Brunswick decided to issue it under the title "Sweet Nuthin's". A sly ode to teen secrets , it insinuates without being offensive, Brenda steering between tough and sassy and sweet and innocent over Owen Bradley's proto-Spector production.
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