By Hank Zevallos

Life has blessed me with the opportunity to have met and gotten to know so many of the people who have meant so much to me. And one such blessing I'll never forget happened to me when I was a young school boy who sold newspaper subscriptions in California's San Fernando Valley. With a little spending cash in my pocket, one day I hopped on my English racer bicycle with the elevated "motorcycle" handlebars and headed off to a local record store to buy some rockin' sounds. Not knowing what for sure, I remember deciding that my three favorite singers were Elvis Presley, Johnny Burnette and Bobby Darin. It was late 1960 and Johnny was high on the charts with "You're Sixteen."

I knew nothing about The Rock 'n Roll Trio yet, but Johnny's expressive singing inflections had made me a fan from the moment I had first heard "Dreamin'," and "Cincinnati Fireball." You just couldn't help but sing along. There was so much personality in his singing, you just couldn't help but be won over. To me, he was clearly one of the greatest. And although I preferred rockers like "Cincinnati Fireball," NO ONE made violins swing like Johnny Burnette. It was an exciting new sound.

Anyway, somehow I ended up leaving the record store having only purchased Elvis' "G.I. Blues" album and "Are You Lonesome Tonight" single. Perhaps they were sold-out of Johnny Burnette, I don't recall. But from the record store, I went directly to the home of a friend, Kenny Kusal, who lived just blocks away. When he saw the record store bag hanging from my handlebars, he asked if I had purchased any Johnny Burnette. I told him no, but I had thought of it. Then, surprisingly, he accused me of not having "supported the neighborhood." When he further explained Johnny Burnette was his neighbor, I said "Yeah, sure." So he took me across the street and a couple houses around the bend to a modest home's front door and knocked. Next thing I knew I met Thruley Burnette and her very handsome husband, Johnny Burnette.

Obviously I was too young to become one of Johnny's everyday buddies, but from then on I've been friends with him and his family. Here, I'd like to share with you memories and facts I've learned that will take you "Inside" The Johnny Burnette Story.

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Art courtesy of MARV'S OLDIES ONLINE

Born March 25th, 1934, in Memphis, Tennessee, Johnny was a husky baby who demonstrated his vocal powers with his first screams and wails. The second son of Dorsey Sr. and Willie Mae Burnette, he was so musical that his mother skimped and saved to buy him a guitar when he was 5 years old. The family lived in a bulging little four-room frame house, which according to Johnny, "Dad built it hisself and it looked like a matchbox. You could throw a cat through it."

As Johnny was quoted in his Liberty Records bio, "The git-tar became my life. All I could play were the D, G and C chords but I never stopped playing them. A much older girl who played the git-tar well lived right near me and I used to practice with her. I didn't care too much for school but I loved strumming that git-tar. All day long I was just pickin' and grinnin'."

Talking about school, after graduating eight grade from Blessed Sacrament parochial school, Johnny attended Catholic High School and did not attend Humes High School with Elvis Presley, as per the legend written in news reports as early as 1956. However, as "Aunt Alberta" recently recalled for me, Johnny and Dorsey used to take their guitars and hang out on the front lawn of Humes, singing and playing with a casual group that often included Bill Black, sometimes Scotty Moore, and, for a song or two, even a young Elvis Presley. Alberta, who did go to school with Elvis, married Dorsey Burnette.

While in high school, Johnny Burnette racked up a series of extraordinary athletic achievements, becoming Catholic High's angry linebacker on the football team, its flashy guard on the basketball five, and its uncompromising welterweight boxer. The football team was "the lowest class football team in Memphis, but a determined one," recalled Johnny, who earned a reputation for fighting every play as if he were in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. This led to what became a celebrated tackle by Red West, a friend of Elvis' who decided to deal with the ferocious Burnette early during a game. "Well," Johnny recalled, "Red knocked me out on one of the first plays of the game." It was evident in the matter-of-fact manner Johnny recalled it, that had Johnny had the first opportunity, it would have been Red carried off the field.

But that was nothing compared to what happened to Johnny when, enroute to a drive-in movie, he pulled over to help a trapped driver stuck in a 1933 hot rod that had skidded off a slippery road and crashed. As Johnny fiercely twisted open the hot rod's door, another car piled up and sent Johnny tumbling on his back, shaken but unhurt. Then, as he picked himself up, a drunken driver plowed another car into the already chaotic scene and sent Johnny hurling 80 feet through the air. A policeman, a little child and two women were also injured in the chain-reaction accident, but only Johnny was given slim odds of pulling through. For three days he laid in a coma, with ruptured liver and shattered ribs. For three months he was a tortured convalescent.

Upon his recovery, Johnny Burnette sang and played music with renewed energy. He organized his first band in high school and after his public debut at the Millington Naval Base, he was soon playing countless benefits and "date money" gigs. And, dating with the abandon of any high school hero, he needed that date money often.

His only professional rebuff came when he waited by the door of the famed Grand Ol' Opry, and told Hank Snow, "I'd like to get on Grand Ol' Opry." Snow regarded the young teenager benevolently and said, "Well, son, it takes thirty or forty years to get on here."

However, Johnny knew he didn't need 30/40 years to prove himself as a boxer, and soon became an outstanding lightweight and welterweight boxer who fought his way to a Memphis City Golden Gloves championship.

Brother Dorsey, who also earned a Golden Gloves divisional championship, was successfully helping fill the family coffers becoming a Southern pro champ. So Johnny also went pro and earned his top paycheck of $150 for an encounter with Norris Ray. Contrary to legend, Johnny's nose was not broken only in the ring, but during a nightclub fight as well. And, when Johnny formed The Rock 'N Roll Trio with fellow boxers Dorsey and guitarist Paul Burlison, there were so many nightclub fights that Elvis Presley called the rowdy bunch "The Dalton Gang." Johnny had "retired" boxing for his love of music, proud but poor.

Beginning in 1951, Johnny, Dorsey and Paul began playing together around Memphis in various combinations with other musicians. They soon acquired quite the reputation for wild music and attracted the attention of other young musicians and music fans alike. After a stint at The Hideaway with Doc McQueen's Swing Band, they tired of playing with "chart musicians," and broke away to soon find an appreciative audience for their then-novel fusion of raw country with electric blues boogie and a rockin' new sound. Unable to write music, they sat in a circle and composed some of the greatest early rock songs ever. One such song, brought undeveloped to the Burnettes by George Hawkens became "Rock Billy Boogie" and is credited for having named a vital new genre of music. It's name was inspired by how Johnny's and Dorsey's toddler sons, Rocky and Billy, shook about and wiggled when the trio rehearsed at home. A legend today, the Johnny Burnette Rock 'N Roll Trio had been born into reality.

JOHNNY BLACK, GENE VINCENT (foot in cast), JOHNNY BURNETTE

Not only has the Johnny Burnette Rock 'N Roll Trio been credited with having been a direct influence upon Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, Aerosmith, The Stray Cats, The Cramps and countless others, but during their days of tearin' it up, Johnny Burnette was also instrumental in getting future Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer, Gene Vincent, on Capitol Records. But despite wild shows packed with enthusiastic crowds, national TV shows, and the Alan Freed movie ROCK ROCK ROCK, The Trio only managed regional hits and broke up uncertain they had what it took for a national breakout.

But, of course, the Burnette Brothers weren't about to quit all together. Before Paul Burlison "retired" to his own electrical business, the Burnettes took him into Sun Studio for some "demo" sessions of songs they wanted to take out west. The whole trip west itself was quite the story. Having previously hitched a train back to Memphis from his first unsuccessful trip to Los Angeles, Johnny Burnette and a friend grabbed a boxcar to L.A. Then shortly after their arrival, a "Map To The Stars" put Johnny Burnette at the door of Ozzie and Harriett Nelson's home. The following is from the 1961 bio:

David Nelson walked out of the home Ozzie and Harriet had built, only to be greeted by a stranger who somehow exuded an air of familiarity. The unknown visitor asked Dave, "Where can I find Rick?" Dave studied the fellow, decided that he wasn't just another bothersome fan and answered, "He'll be back soon."

"Soon" was a euphemism for two hours, which the kid spent tensely pacing in front of the Nelson's Cape Cod Colonial house on a dead-end street in Hollywood. Finally, in the company of stunning starlet Lori Collins, Ricky pulled up.

"Hi," the stranger greeted Rick. "My name's Johnny Burnette and I've written some songs I'd like you to hear."

And the kid gave an impromptu rock 'n' roll recital on the lawn of the home of one of the world's most popular singers, with the singer and beautiful young actress as his sole audience.

He dazzled them both, and now knew that he would in time dazzle less demanding listeners.

After he and Dorsey supplied Ricky Nelson with such hits as "Waitin' In School," "Just A Little Too Much," "It's Late," "Long Vacation," and Rick's signature "Believe What You Say," Johnny Burnette had not only written some very credible million-sellers, but he was itching to record some. And to do this, he boldly decided to create a rockin' new sound that employed an entire orchestral string section. Incidently, selling over a million and a half copies upon its release to a rock'n'roll audience, "Believe What You Say" was such a cross-over sensation that it also won the 1958 Country And Western Song Of The Year!

The back of this album featured the following:

AN OPEN LETTER FROM RICKY NELSON

I first met Johnny Burnette when he came out to my house to play some of the tunes he had written. I really liked them. As a matter of fact, I recorded several and I'm glad I did. Three of them were "Waitin' In School," "Believe What You Say" and "Just A Little Too Much." They did pretty well for both of us. His demonstration renditions were great!

I was delighted when he began recording for Liberty and had his first hit, "Settin' The Woods On Fire." I am equally happy that he has recorded this album.

Johnny has selected some fine tunes. Some of them were big "country" hits that he dressed up with a great interpretation including strings. There's even a show tune or two and a couple of songs that Johnny wrote. He has a style all his own and each one comes off like you've never heard it before.

So now, in addition to being a successful songwriter, he's "made it" as a performer. Congratulations, Johnny, and best of luck from your good friend.

Rick

Johnny's first attempt at hitting with his rockin' violins concept came in mid-November 1959 with the release of "Settin' The Woods On Fire" b/w "Kentucky Waltz." It started with a buzz, breaking out regionally. Until some uptights got it banned as a threat to arson! Then, as Johnny recalled on an Armed Forces Radio interview, he heard "Dreamin':"

JACK BROWN: Tell me, what do you think was the thing that put you on the track to becoming one of the best selling artists in the country?

JOHNNY BURNETTE: Well, I'll tell you from the front, Jack. I was down at a recording studio one day and I heard a song. It was a song called "Dreamin'," and I heard it one time. And on the way home in the car, I said, uh - You know, I kept singing it over and over to myself and I said this song has got something to it. I don't know what it is. So I went back to the fellow that wrote it. Barry DeVorzon is the fellow that wrote the song. And I said, "Barry, that's a good song. Let me hear the demo on it again." So I listened to the demonstration record and, ah, it bugged me for a long time, you know, again. And I told him - I went back to him again and I said, "Barry, let me do this song and I'll put violins on it." He told me, "Well, I don't know that this is the type of song that needs violins." And I said, "Well I don't know, but I think it does. If you'd just let me try it one time; go into a studio and do it. I believe we'll come off with it." So we went to United Studios here in Hollywood, California, and recorded this song and we thought it came off real well, backed up by another side called "Cincinnati Fireball." And we didn't know which would be the side. But as it was released, we found out in two weeks that "Dreamin'" was the side of the record by the people requesting it and the sales action on the record.

JACK BROWN: And you also found out that you had The Sound that those who buy records today are looking for!

The following is from the 1961 Liberty bio on Johnny Burnette:

In July, 1960, with 14 violins instead of his guitar backing him, Johnny recorded an item called "Dreamin'." He didn't have to, any longer, for the record did what all the others had failed to do - - it became a bonafide hit.

Then, as always seems to happen, the hits came with joyous consistency - - "You're 16," "Little Boy Sad," "Big, Big World," "Girls," etc. etc.

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Part Two