Johnny Marks, Owen Bradley Earn Their First Hot 100 No. 1s – Billboard

As Brenda Lee’s traditional vacation hit “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” hits No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 (dated Dec. 9), Johnny Marks and Owen Bradley, the late songwriter and producer behind the music, respectively, every obtain their first-ever No. 1 on Billboard’s charts.

Marks wrote “Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree” in 1958 for a then-13-year-old Lee. He beforehand penned different vacation favorites, together with Gene Autry’s “Rudolph, the Pink-Nosed Reindeer,” launched in 1949. After “Rockin’,” he wrote Burl Ives’ 1964 classics “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Silver and Gold.” Marks can also be credited as a co-writer on Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run” attributable to his trademark on the Rudolph character.

“He was such a mild soul,” Lee recalled to Billboard of the late songwriter Dec. 4, upon studying of her new Sizzling 100 coronation. “He was Jewish and didn’t even consider in Christmas, and all that will come out of him was Christmas music. He advised me he was laying on the seaside in New York and I suppose he took a nap or one thing and when he awoke, he noticed the pine bushes had been sort of swaying. I mentioned, ‘You bought pine bushes on the seaside in New York?’ He mentioned, ‘Yeah, and I believed the pine bushes are rocking, and he went dwelling and got here up with ‘Rockin’ Across the Christmas Tree.’”

Marks died in 1985 at age 75. Final week, he returned to No. 1 on Billboard’s Sizzling 100 Songwriters chart for a twentieth week on high. He’s led the chart yearly for the reason that rating launched in 2019, as vacation hits return to the Sizzling 100 every season.

“Rockin’ ” producer Owen Bradley additionally scores his first No. 1 on the Sizzling 100. He additionally produced Bobby Helms’ 1957 traditional “Jingle Bell Rock.”

Along with his work on these vacation perennials, the Tennessee native and Nation Music Corridor of Fame inductee can also be thought of one of many architects of the “Nashville sound,” the model of nation music that includes pop components with smooth strings and clean tempos. He helped set up the subgenre by his manufacturing work on hits by Patsy Cline, together with “Loopy,” “I Fall to Items” and “Walkin’ After Midnight,” in addition to songs by Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty and Kitty Wells. He began his profession working at legendary Nashville radio station WSM-AM and later rose to change into vice chairman of the Decca document label’s Nashville division.

Bradley died in 1998 at age 82. Just like Marks, Bradley has topped the Sizzling 100 Producers chart yearly since Billboard launched the rankings in 2019. He leads the most recent record for a thirteenth whole week.