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A rock and roll time capsule
Johnny Burnette's Rock and Roll Trio, which formed in the early fifties in Memphis, consisted of the brothers Johnny and Dorsey Burnette and the part-time electrician and part-time rocker Paul Burlison. After playing small gigs around Memphis and West Memphis for years, the trio went to New York and won three weeks straight on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, which led to their signing with Coral Records. For the next year before their breakup in 1957, the Rock and Roll Trio recorded some of the wildest, most blazing rock and roll no one ever heard. The band couldn’t buy a hit, and their only milestone, through cult fame, is their third single for Coral, “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” released in October 1956. The trio also appeared briefly in Alan Freed’s 1956 movie Rock, Rock, Rock.
The reasons why the trio couldn’t find success are numerable, but it wasn't due to lack of effort or playing. Their live shows were relentless, usually played once a night in a different town. They had grown up in Lauderdale Courts alongside a young Elvis Presley. In his great book on Memphis music, author Larry Nager states that Elvis would watch the Burnette brothers rehearse in the Lauderdale Courts laundry room. The trio’s ties to Elvis go deeper than that. Dorsey and Paul worked with Elvis at Crown Electric and asked Elvis to perform with the trio several times, which Elvis always turned down. Once Elvis found success, the Rock and Roll Trio auditioned for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records. Sam turned them down, citing that they sounded too much like Presley. Johnny, Dorsey, and Paul were also champion Golden Glove boxers, and the Burnette brothers worked as bouncers in a West Memphis club during their early days. The Burnette brothers each found their way to Hollywood after the trio dissolved in 1957. Johnny found Ozzie and Harriet Nelson’s home from a “Map to the Stars” and sat on their front porch until he could meet with their son, superstar Ricky Nelson. Johnny got the meeting and eventually wrote several hits for Nelson, such as “I Believe What You Say” and “It’s Late.” In a famous incident involving Ricky Nelson and Eddie Cochran, a strange man with a knife entered the house of Cochran’s girlfriend where they were all visiting. The Burnette brothers quickly pounced on the man, beating him badly and sending him down several flights of stairs. Johnny found solo success in the United States and Britain with his 1960 single “You’re Sixteen,” which was released on the Liberty label. Sadly, Johnny died a few years later in a boating accident in 1964, and his brother Dorsey later died in 1979. After having a successful electrical company in the Memphis area for years, Paul Burlison died of cancer in 2003. However, the band and its legacy will forever be apart of Memphis music in more ways than one. Burlison influenced some of the world’s greatest guitar players, including Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, and Eric Clapton, by haphazardly creating distortion. Once on tour, Burlison dropped his amp, and a tube loosened which created a fuzzy sound on his guitar. He later re-loosened the tube before recording “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” and it was captured forever. Despite the fact that the trio was more influential than they were innovative, their year’s worth of music contains several of the greatest rockabilly tracks ever recorded. But like many others, the shadow of Elvis Presley loomed large, and they were refused the success they deserved. For more info:
Comments
right on man keep articles like this coming and rock and roll will never die. love the trivia of little known facts.
Catch That Rockabilly Fever by Sheree Homer is a candid account of life on the road and in the studio with '50s legends and today's talent. These are personal stories told by the artists themselves. It's a soft cover biography that will be published in October 2009 by McFarland Publishers and retail for $39.95. It will have never before seen photos (strictly 1950's photos of the legends) and rare stories from the artists themselves. The Rock and Roll Trio is one of the featured acts, forty-six different artists total.
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