Brenda Lee

I shopped a class today called "I Like Ike But I Love Lucy: Women, Popular Culture, & the 1950s." There was a short survey with a question at the bottom about ideas for a final project. I of course thought about some awesome ladies of the '50s... perhaps more so venturing into the 1960s. I've been listening to a lot more '60s girl groups lately, but I still wish I were more well versed in that area.

When I was home for the first time over the summer, I bought a couple cheap Brenda Lee 7" on a lark. The A side of one is "Dum Dum," which I kept dragging the needle back to the beginning time after time. She does this thing where she drops down her voice in this ridiculous way. Kathleen Hanna tries describing it as a "sexy hiccup" in this video, but I think you really just have to listen to it to really understand.



She started out in the '50s (when she was only eleven), which is why I thought of her for that class, but she really hit it big in the sixties... she had more charted hits than any other woman. She went more country later on, but you can even hear that in earlier songs like "Jambalaya" (a Hank Williams song originally). This probably gives the best example of the hiccup Kathleen is talking about.

Brenda Lee- Greatest Hits