The Best Of Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'N' Roll Trio

The Best Of Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'N' Roll Trio

As respected as they are in rockabilly circles, JOHNNY & DORSEY BURNETTE don’t have the notoriety of their contemporaries like Elvis Presley or Carl Perkins.  While lead guitarist Paul Burlison is nearly as respected as Elvis’ guitarist Scotty Moore—some of the licks on The Trio’s tracks were supplied by session guitarist Grady Martin.   Burlison worked with Elvis Presley at Crown Electric, & the brothers knew him as well, but he never recorded any of their songs.  Sun Records’ Sam Phillips passed on them because they sounded too much like Elvis—but they were all (along with Perkins) experimenting with similar styles of music at the same time.

The Burnette Brothers were rough hewn.  Both were boxers—Golden Gloves Champions—and they weren’t above turning those skills on one another.  The groundbreaking raw and ragged guitar sound on Train Kept A Rollin’ has been attributed to a loose tube in Burlison’s amplifier—and one account claims that what knocked the tube loose was a scuffle between The Battling Burnettes.  

Competitiveness is a large part of any boxer.  Add to that they both wrote songs, and they were both capable singers, & good ol’ sibling rivalry, & it’s no surprise the brother’ relationship was often contentious.  Younger brother Johnny’s name being placed before the band’s original name: THE ROCK AND ROLL TRIO  didn’t help matters.  Dorsey left the group just before their appearance in Alan Freed’s movie; Rock, Rock, Rock, and was replaced by Johnny Black, the brother of Elvis’ bassist, Bill Black.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, Johnny Burnette famously lay in wait in front of Ricky Nelson’s house & sold him on listening to their songs, and the brothers were underway as a songwriting duo.

The Burnette Brothers both had some success as recording artists at the beginning of the ‘60s, with Dorsey leaning toward country and Johnny leaning toward pop.  Johnny died tragically in a boating accident in 1964 leaving behind a son, Rocky who went on to have a recording career.  Dorsey scored 15 minor hits in the country field & had even greater success as a songwriter.  His son, Billy, also went on to become a solo artist and to play with Fleetwood Mac for several years.  Like their famous fathers the cousins relationship was strained.

This compilation shows why Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'N' Roll Trio are on everybody’s short list of rockabilly pioneers.  I’ve listened to most of these tracks a couple hundred times and they still get me amped up.  

In the words of Jerry Lee Lewis: “If God made anything better, he kep’ it fo’ himself”.