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”.

 

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