People: That’s what you call a real evergreen

She’s been “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” for almost 50 years, but Brenda Lee never tires of her holiday classic.

“I don’t think you ever get tired of the well-written, well-crafted songs,” she says. “They’re easy to sing, and they stand the test of time.”

Lee was only 13 when she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958, starting a career that eventually got her into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Featuring Lee’s boisterous voice and Hank Garland‘s ringing guitar, “Rockin’ ” is among the most popular holiday songs of all time. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers lists it as the 14th most performed holiday song over the past five years.

It was written by Johnny Marks, who also composed “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “A Holly, Jolly Christmas.” Lee cut it in Nashville with famed producer Owen Bradley.

No snow was falling that day. As Lee recalls, it was July.

“Owen had the studio all freezing cold with the air conditioning, and he had a Christmas tree all set up to kind of get in the mood just a little bit,” she says. “We had a lot of fun.”

And a lot of success. She recorded “Sweet Nothin’s” and some of her other early hits in the same session.

“Rockin’ ” was released as a single in ‘58 and again in ‘59 before it finally took off in 1960 in the wake of her No. 1 smash “I’m Sorry” – one of the first songs in Nashville with a string section, ushering in the “Nashville Sound.”

Lee, born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta, became an international star in the early 1960s. The Beatles opened for her. Chuck Berry recorded a song about her.

But she returned to country and found success with “Big Four Poster Bed” and “Nobody Wins.” She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

“When they told me … I certainly couldn’t believe it,” Lee said. “I would have thought the rock maybe I had a chance, but I really didn’t think country that much.”

Ironically, her induction to the rock hall didn’t come until five years later.

“I was nominated three times for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the first two I didn’t get in, so I figured (it was) pretty much over,” she says.

At age 62, the 4-foot-9 Lee still goes by the nickname “Little Miss Dynamite.” She performs about 30 shows a year and sings “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” at every one of them.

“I didn’t used to,” she says. “But about 10 years ago I’d be finishing a show and they’d say, ‘You didn’t sing Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,’ and I’d say, ‘Yeah, but it’s not Christmas,’ and they’d say, ‘We don’t care.’

“So I put it in and I close my shows with it.”

The birthday bunch

Singer-bassist Lemmy (Motorhead) is 61. Actor Clarence Gilyard (“Walker, Texas Ranger”) is 51. Actress Stephanie Hodge (“Unhappily Ever After”) is 50. Actor Mark Valley (“Boston Legal”) is 42. Singer Ricky Martin is 35. “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest is 32.