Brenda Lee remembers a special bond with “favorite Beatle” John Lennon

These days, Brenda Lee is best known for the beloved 1958 holiday classic “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which she recorded when she was 12 years old. But in the ’60s, she was the hottest female pop star in the world – the Taylor Swift of her time.

She was such a big star that she had two consecutive No. 1 hits with “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted” in 1960, when she was still a teenager. Earlier in the decade, she even headlined a show where The Beatles were her opening act. Lee talks about her connection to her fellow rock ‘n’ roll legends in the new PBS American Masters documentary Brenda Lee: Rockin’ Around.

“When I started touring in England, I was popular (there) before I was even here,” Lee, 80, says in the documentary. “There was a group called The Silver Beatles who opened this show for me and who later became The Beatles.”

While she was with the Fab Four, she says she developed a particularly close connection with one of them.

“John was my favorite Beatle,” Lee remembers. “I loved them all, but John was irreverent to say the least and had a great sense of humor, the first female rocker.

Keith Urban agrees with this revelation: “Yes, she deserved it,” he says in the film. “Naturally. John Lennon didn’t make it easy to give compliments.”

Although Lee took her biggest spot on the charts with her lovelorn pop ballads in the ’60s, her country hits in the ’70s and ’80s, and of course the aforementioned Christmas classic, she started out as a rockabilly singer. One of their biggest hits was the rocking Top 5 single “Sweet Nothin’s” from 1959, which Kanye West sampled in his 2013 song “Bound 2.”

Lee is one of only a few acts to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. And last Christmas, after 65 years in circulation, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” finally reached the pinnacle of billboard‘s Hot 100, making her the oldest performer to score a No. 1 single on the chart at age 78. Two days later, she celebrated her 79th birthday with a second week at the top.

Country superstar Trisha Yearwood, who appears in the documentary and in Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” video, marvels at Lee’s enormous endurance – and her history with the Beatles.

“There aren’t very many people you can be around and they’ll talk about the time they hung out with the Beatles,” Yearwood says.

Brenda Lee: Rockin’ Around will stream on pbs.org until January 14th.