BRENDA LEE - SWEET NOTHIN'S

In 1959, 14-year old Brenda Lee recorded her first major hit record - Sweet Nothin's. The song was written by Ronnie Self, who wrote several hits for Lee including I'm Sorry and Everybody Loves Me But You. Lee began performing when she was 5 years old, and when she was 11 an unplanned television appearance landed her a first contract on a regular TV show. In 1958, when she was 13 she recorded Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree. And in 1960 she recorded the chart-topper I'm Sorry - her signature song. In the 1960's Lee had 47 charting hits - the only performers to surpass that were Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Ray Charles. Her record of nine consecutive top ten Billboard hits remained unbroken until Madonna topped it in 1986. Lee was one of the first pop singers to gain a major international following. In 1986, when Producer David Z arranged Prince's worldwide number one hit Kiss, he crafted the sound of the song inspired by the vocals from Brenda Lee's Sweet Nothin's. David Z adapted Lee's vocals to create the distinctive "ah-wah-ah" in the background vocals in Kiss. In 1994, Sweet Nothin's was sampled by The Beatnuts on the track titled Intro, the first track off their debut album Street Level. The song was sampled numerous other times since then, such as in 2013 when it was prominently sampled in Kanye West's Bound 2.