The Johnny Burnette Trio - Biography
By Jonny Whiteside
Memphis, Tennessee rockabilly spearheads the Johnny Burnette & the Rock & Roll Trio not only made significant local impact concurrent to the rise of Elvis Presley, they also traded in a supercharged version of the music so aggressive that it made Presley sound tame by comparison. With a kicking set list that introduced several rock standards (decades after the bands break up, "Train Kept a-Rollin'" was covered first- most famously, by The Yardbirds, then taken up by Aerosmith- "Tear It Up" by the Cramps, while Ringo Starr recorded Johnny Burnette's solo hit "You're Sixteen") and Johnny's unhinged, howling vocals, driven by his brother Dorsey's walloping slap bass and topped off by guitarist Paul Burlison's forceful, high speed style, the trio directly influenced Presley (with whom Dorsey and Burlison worked day job alongside at Crown Electric) and essentially codified the rockabilly blueprint almost single handedly.
Both brothers were born in Memphis (Dorsey, December 28, 1932 and Johnny March 28, 1934), while Burlison (born in Brownsville, Tennessee February 4, 1929) had moved there in 1937. As children, the brothers were born to rock--each was made a gift of a Gene Autry guitar in 1939, which they almost immediately smashed over each others heads. The slightly more pacific Burlison grew into a stone blues fan, but the three met via another common passion: amateur boxing. After more than a few brutal poundings, the Burnettes and Burlison morphed their other primary affection, traditional country, into a bold, R&B-informed sound (significantly, Burlison had accompanied legendary blues great Howlin' Wolf for several months on local radio station KWEM broadcasts and club dates ) and were performing together as early as 1951, both on their own and sitting in with other dance bands; they also frequently rehearsed in the Memphis housing project where both the Burnettes and Elvis lived. Soon a steady draw at Memphis joint the Hideaway, The Rock & Roll Trio made it's first recordings for Boonville Mississippi indie Von circa 1955, but the results were negligible (after Sun records Sam Phillips heard them, he dismissed any chance of a deal there).
With an audacity that matched their music's volcanic intensity, the trio's next move was to head for--not Nashville--but New York, where they auditioned for, appeared on and quickly won three consecutive broadcasts of the much-watched Ted Mack Amateur Hour television show. Their wild performances also brought them a management deal with bandleader Henry Jerome who got them on the roster at the most powerful talent agent of the day GAC and a contract with Decca Records, Recording for the Coral subsidiary, they entered the recording studio on May 7, 1956 and found a 32 piece orchestra set up for the session. Crazy, no? They cut one lame ballad, "Shattered Dreams," everyone home except the drummer and laid down essential, delirious numbers "Tear It Up," You're Undecided," "Midnight Train," and "Oh Baby Babe". Over the next 10 months the trio churned out some of most vibrant, raw and over-stimulated rockabilly ever captured on record, lent additional impact by Burlison's flawless leads and greasy, semi-distorted tone (craftily achieved by loosening a tube in his amp) and played a slew of shows where the audience's fervor easily matched their sound ("Wild Teenagers Rip Shirt Off Rock 'N Roll Singer" was the headline following an October 1956 appearance in Indiana).
Whether squalling their hot-roasted originals or covering Big Joe Turner or Tiny Bradshaw, the Trio elevated any song to a dizzying altitude, but between the brother's penchant for disruptive behavior and frequent. violent brawls and the constant need for police escorts, the band imploded in late 1957. Burlison returned to Memphis and put his amp into storage, while Dorsey, soon followed by Johnny, landed in Hollywood, where the former enjoyed considerable success writing for Ricky Nelson and the latter embarked on his solo pop career at Liberty Records. Tragically, Johnny was killed in a 1964 boating accident on Clear Lake in Northern California, and Dorsey soldiered on with a moderately successful country music career. But that brief period when the Rock & Roll Trio was laying 'em in the aisles forever established the group as one of the music's most defining, influential and flat-out drastic forces.