Long before "Star Search" Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera brought forth, before "American Idol" Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood took and MySpace Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift -produced decades before they were born female teen idols-there was Brenda Lee.

What are in the exhibition "Brenda Lee: Dynamite, Presented by Great American Country Television Network in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum until July 2010zu is, has so far none of these young superstars, despite its stunning successes, the size of the former Brenda Mae Tarpley in the shade.
Lee, the only woman to be incorporated into both the Country Music and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and eight years as a member of the CMA Board was, according to the rankings, which were addressed by Joel Whitburn Billboard Chartguru collected, the commercially most successful singer of the 1960s. To date, she sold more than 100 million albums.

Brenda Lee

She was the youngest Star (12) on the Las Vegas Strip as a teenager and a regular guest on "The Ed Sullivan Show", nationwide on "Ozark Jubilee" by Red Foley and other television shows. Because of her petite figure, the great voice and electrifying stage presence "Little Miss Dynamite" called, they appeared internationally since the 1950s, including 30 trips to Japan in 1962 and a tour of England with The Beatles as an opening act. In 2009, Lee, which still occurs in approximately 20 shows per year, awarded the highest award from the Recording Academy, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

"I can believe there is still little," Lee said recently during a visit to the exhibition in the Hall of Fame, as she stood before a display case with some of her many awards.

"When I look at these awards, it feels as if they belonged not to me," she explains, while the desire of the fans who approach in a steady stream of them met for autographs. "Someone has made his case well, but this someone is not me, because that was never my goal. I have not set out to win a lot of awards and a lot to earn money or to sell millions of albums. I just wanted to to sing and it was my privilege to do so. And then I was also privileged to be recognized as such. However, it is still incredible. Absolutely. "

If another artist said this, it would have sounded disingenuous or, at least superficially. But not so with Lee, who began her professional career to help her mother and sister after the death of his father. The most telling memory of the exhibition at this stage in their careers is a photo of Lee in which they, not yet 10 years old, is seen during a performance at the Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta shortly after the death of her father. It is accompanied by a clarinettist and an accordion player and contributes Cowgirlstiefel and Western clothing for children.

Two years later the family moved from Augusta, GA, to Springfield, MO, so they did not have the strenuous travel for Lee's weekly appearances on "Ozark Jubilee" take on themselves. "Otherwise," she explains, "we had on Friday directly after school, take a Greyhound bus, drive all night, arrived on Saturday there are some point, the show have put behind us, have risen again in the bus, all night driven, arrived on Sunday at home and on Monday went back to school. This was really tiring after a while. "

Alluding to these less glamorous days when she confessed her admission into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "It was a long way from the cotton fields of Georgia to the Waldorf Astoria." The exhibition is video of her speech in which she her producers, the late Owen Bradley, and her first-class team of studio pros who accompanied them in the recordings, showered with praise, and shows different images from each stage of their career.

Brenda Lee in Las Vegas 2004

"Owen was wonderful," recalls Lee. "He knew so well all his artists, not only professionally but also personally. He knew what they were capable, and he also knew how he could extract from them."

He confined neither his imagination nor his artist on the theoretical boundaries between country, pop and rock 'n' Roll. "Owen was always the view if it is good, it's everything," says Lee. "Therefore, we chose the best song ever, we could choose. The men of Team, Buddy Harman, Bobby Moore, Floyd Cramer, Boots Randolph, Ray Edenton, Harold Bradley, Grady Martin, Hank Garland - whom I have forgotten? - And of course, the Anita Kerr Singers, we all sat together and said, 'So, I think she sings this line, we come to the scooby-dooby-do. " And Grady said, 'I play this lick', and Boots said, 'What is it like when I play the solo? ". And so it was."

The "it", speaks of the Lee, includes 250 songs, which she recorded up to the age of 21 years for Decca, a company that is now part of Universal Music Group. Just over 30 of them were Top 40 pop hits and another 20 that landed mostly in the '70s and '80s were included in the Country Top 40 The largest among them, from "I'm Sorry" and "I Want to Be Wanted" to "Dum Dum" and "Rockin 'Around the Christmas Tree" have long been regarded as classics.

Hearing this, the guitarist for the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards, from the show in Nashville, he sent Lee an autograph photo with a note that before any of his shows their hit "Sweet Nothin's" of 1959 on his iPod listening. Elton John, who said of himself that he's great success, "Crocodile Rock" from 1972 with Lee in the back said, sent her an occupied with rhinestones sunglasses.

These and other contacts with celebrities appear in the show again and again, including a photo of Lee with the Queen of England, and video footage of her and Bob Hope on one of his television shows. Most impressive, among all its awards, but perhaps the things that show how Lee work and family over 60 years of her career always united.

"We wanted to tell the story of this extraordinary family, from Brenda's incredible discipline as mother and wife and now as a grandmother," says the exhibition's curator, Carolyn Tate, VP of Museum Services, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. "It integrates the dates of her grandchildren every day in their work schedule. It is amazing, and she has done such a thing from the beginning, always."

She was also married for five decades with the same man, Ronnie Shacklett. Shacklett was more than just her childhood sweetheart, he was responsible for the death of Dub Albritten, who has managed in its early years, even for Lee's career. He noted even on the back of their marriage license, which can be seen in the exhibition that his newly-betrothed on the same day by 15, a sample clock for her performance in "The Ed Sullivan Show" on 12 May 1963 has.

Brenda Lee visited her exhibitions at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

"I thought, 'Wow, Ronnie, as romatisch'" recalls Lee laughs.

Your personal and professional achievements are record-breaking, as well as its historical significance as something of a prototype of the female idols of teenagers today. "Nevertheless," admits Lee, "I'm not sure I could do it today. When I started, enough talent, but these days you need the complete package. The whole look, the whole image, the whole behavior, whole attitude. You're a product. You're not you do yourself "

Nevertheless, Lee pursued many of the young stars of today and enjoying them. For those who follow her on the way, she has prepared a very recent phenomenon, it is a simple advice: "tehe with all my heart to your dream and was willing to believe absolutely in yourself, even if no one else to you think.

Sometimes it can be a long road on which you have to make a lot of heart, before you see any success with your music. Often young artists come to me and say, 'Well I'll try for some years and if I have not, then I go back to what I have done before. " I believe that you are the "before" have to hide if you want to have success in this business. "

"By the way," she continues, "if you can be happy with anything other than a career in the music business, then do das. A music career is not the right for people to do things half-heartedly or discouraged be easily or for people which can easily accept a plan B. Music can be a very tough job. Only for those on a career that never could be happy with something else. "

With today's young stars Lee raises, among other favorites Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift shows. "These are real people who sing about real things," she says. "That is why people react to Taylor Swift . There may be teenagers. It can be young adults. I do not care. But they respond to millions and millions of ways. It sells at the moment more than anyone else in the industry. That's huge. "

Swift returned the respect that Lee proves it, in the same way. "One thing for which I was very thankful this year, the support by my fellow artists, and Brenda Lee was wonderfully kind to me," she says. "It is not only a great artist, but also a great role model for other artists, beginning at a young age with her career."

As Lee sees it, and have it Swift one trait in common, which is essential for their success: "She is who she is. She's just herself she has no record company, who say, 'You must change your attitude, because you smile too much. You have to occur a bit gloomy, because that is just announced. '"

"Said to me once a record company, 'you do not smile. They smile too much." I said, 'Are you kidding? That's me. That's what I do', "concludes Lee - of course with a smile.