The Burnette Brothers Playbook - Johnny & Dorsey Burnette

The Burnette Brothers Playbook

This collection of songs associated with JOHNNY & DORSEY BURNETTE is titled The Burnette Brothers Playbook because while they wrote many of the most enduring rockabilly tracks of all time, they also recorded songs written by others—turning them into rockabilly standards in the process.

The biggest recipient of The Burnette Brothers songwriting was RICKY NELSON, but they also supplied material to GENE VINCENT, JERRY LEE LEWIS, GLEN CAMPBELL, BOB LUMAN, & ROY BROWN who wrote a standard of his own Good Rockin’ Tonight.  THE BEATLES often played their songs during live performances on The BBC.

The brothers’ bandmate, guitarist Paul Burlison worked with Elvis Presley at Crown Electric—and their group The Rock & Roll Trio rehearsed in the laundry room at Memphis’ Lauderdale Courts—where the brothers & Elvis all lived.  Family members say Johnny & Dorsey also played basketball with him, & Elvis reportedly used to watch them rehearse—but strangely never recorded any of their songs.

According to legend, upon moving to Los Angeles, Johnny Burnette bought a map of the stars homes, and sat in front of Ricky Nelson’s house & told Ricky he had some songs for him.  Ricky recorded at least five of the duo’s songs & he recorded Believe What You Say four times!  A later live version by Rick kicks this collection off.

Needless to say, later day rockabilly revivalists dug deep into the brothers catalogue.  The best at covering their songs were ROBERT GORDON & THE STRAY CATS, but JACK SMITH, THE PIRATES, & ELVIS COSTELLO also had a feel for them—as did lesser known rockabilly artists like LA’s THE RATTLERS (with Ronnie Mac & Jimmy Lee Maslon) & DARREL HIGHAM.

The sons of JOHNNY & DORSEY; Rocky Burnette & Billy Burnette also recorded their famous father’s songs.  Johnny’s son Rocky had his biggest hit in 1979 with a song that he co-wrote himself; Tired Of Toein’ The Line.  Dorsey's son Billy later joined Fleetwood Mac, but his self-titled 1980 album is a rockabilly revival classic (from which his version of Tear It Up is taken).  Just as their fathers were highly competitive with one another, their sons were as well—which was to be expected when they reached their highest points in the charts around the same time.

The Rock ’N’ Roll Trio were more aggressive in their approach than any band of their time—on and off stage.  Both of The Burnette Brothers were Golden Gloves boxers, and it’s said that the fuzz guitar on Train Kept A Rollin’ was the result of a tube that was knocked loose in the guitar amp while the brothers were knocking one another around.  Dorsey, being the older brother, bristled when management billed them as The Johnny Burnette Rock ’N’ Roll Trio, leaving the group for a solo career just before they were featured in the Alan Freed movie Rock Rock Rock!  His replacement was Johnny Black, brother of Elvis’ bassist Bill Black.  Despite being in a movie, & making an impressive number of appearances on TV (that included winning The Ted Mack Amateur Hour) their records didn’t sell.  But both of the brothers went on to score much tamer hits as solo acts.

JOHNNY & DORSEY wrote all of these songs except for Fats Domino’s Please Don't Leave Me, & Big Joe Turner’s Honey Hush.  They reinvented these slower rhythm & blues numbers into raucous rockabilly standards.  For proof, compare Tiny Bradshaw’s version of Train Kept A Rollin’ to theirs.  The Yardbirds’ & Aerosmith’s versions clearly take their inspiration from The Rock ’N’ Roll Trio’s.

Tiny Bradshaw - Train Kept A Rollin’ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci4EQDD4CqA

The Rock ’N’ Roll Trio  - Train Kept A Rollin’ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy6YZTgyWa4