...Johnny Burnette, who with his his Rock And Roll Trio taught Elvis a thing or three about how to rock.

But when you mention Johnny Burnette, you've also got to mention kin. Dorsey Burnette, Billy Burnette, Rocky Burnette, and God-knows how many other Burnettes...

- Jann Uhelszki, Addicted To Noise, 3/28/1996

Twenty city policemen and auxiliary police rescued a young 'rock'n roll' singer with Elvis-like gyrations from a mob of screaming teen-agers last night at the West Side Fall Festival.

The teen-agers - mostly girls who had been sent into a frenzy by the performance - ripped the shirt from the singer's back as he struggled to his car with the aid of police.

...the singer who caused the commotion is Johnny Burnette, a wild-haired 21-year-old youth from Memphis, Tenn. He was accompanied by brother Dorsey Burnette on bass and guitarist Paul Burlison.

Their recording of Honey Hush was reported to be out-selling any other record in New York and Boston.

All during Burnette's performance, the crowd of about 2,000 persons kept up a continuous howl that all but drowned out the singer's voice.

Burnette, who went to school with Elvis Presley, concluded the performance with a wild rendition of Hound Dog. then he threw down his guitar, ripped off his coat and ran for a trailer behind the stage.

Police had been alerted for trouble. they immediately poured onto the stage and surrounded Burnette's car which was parked a few feet away.

Crowds of teen-agers massed behind the platform to wait for Burnette. He came out with a police escort a few minutes later, but his path was blocked by the teen-agers.

It was during the struggle to get to his car that some of his fans grabbed Burnette's shirt and ripped it off. some of the girls then tore his shirt to bits for souvenirs.

The singer, who had all but exhausted himself in the performance, was in sad shape when he reached the car.

'I shoulda laid off that last Hound Dog,' he panted.

- The Evansville Courier, 10/20/1956

Elvis Presley wasn't the only one setting Memphis aflame in '56. With singer Johnny Burnette beating flat-top rhythm, brother Dorsey Burnette slapping stand-up bass and Paul Burlison tearing it up on lead guitar, the Rock'n Roll Trio was also prime innovators of Memphis rockabilly...

After discovering that playing 'a little blues over country with an added boogie beat' could fill a dance floor, The Trio drove to New York City to compete on the nationally broadcast Ted Mack Amateur Hour tv show. Besting the competition three weeks in a row, they won a contract with Coral Records and in May '56 recorded their originals Oh Baby Babe, Tear It Up and You're Undecided at the huge Pythian Temple Ballroom in New York City.

'There was a 32-piece orchestra waiting for us,' Paul recalled in the Aug. '78 GP, 'and the leader came over and said, 'now, boys, we don't know anything about Rock And Roll. you just tell us what to do, and we'll do it.' We laughed and said we couldn't tell him -- we just play what we feel. none of us could even read music, and we ended up just using his drummer.' Paul's sure-handed solos on these and subsequent 45 s rolled boogie bass lines, confident country and sultry blues into a fresh, raucous style.

While on the road, he accidently discovered a unique method for getting a primitive fuzz sound. 'Just before a show,' Paul recalls, 'the leather strap on my blond fender amp broke, and the amp fell to the floor. when i plugged the guitar in, it had a real fuzzy sound. I looked in the back of the amp, and one of the tubes was barely sticking in the prongs -- It was acting like rheostat. The guitar sounded pretty good, so i left the tube the way it was. From then on, whenever i wanted to get that sound, i'd just reach back there and loosen the tube. It sounded real funky.' Burlison made the most of his discovery at their July '56 session in Nashville, fuzzing out raw octave leads on their biggest single, Train Kept A-Rollin' backed with Honey Hush, which came out credited to the Johnny Burnette Trio. While The Yardbirds (with Jeff Beck), Aerosmith and others have covered Train Kept A-Rollin', none captured the primal intensity of Johnny's possessed vocals or Paul's wildman solo.

The Trio's subsequent live appearances generated pandemonium. ...the Rock'n Roll Trio appeared coast-to-coast on American Bandstand, Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall and Steve Allen's The Tonight Show, but were still unable to score that elusive breakthrough single. 'We kind of got bewildered with it all,' Burlison sighs. 'We kept putting out records, but we just didn't think we had what it took at the time. The fame or whatever you want to call it never really affected me at all. I was just hoping to make enough money out of it to open an electrical supply company.'

Dorsey was the first to leave, replaced by Johnny Black, whose brother played bass for Elvis. During the fall of '57 the rest of The Trio disbanded. Dorsey and Johnny went on to make records and write memorable songs for Ricky Nelson...

With the release of Train Kept A-Rollin', his debut solo album on Sweetfish Records, 68-year-old Burlison restakes his claim as a consummate rockabilly guitarist. While old friends and guest stars abound, this Jim Weider production is no homage-to-an-oldie lovefest, but an album of vital rock and roll. with Rocky and Billy Burnette huffing vocals, Paul's remake of Train Kept A-Rollin' rivals the original, right down to the fuzzed-out solo...

- Jas Obrecht, Guitar Player, 7/1997

The first ever distorted, fuzz-tone guitar sound shocked the music world when Train Kept A-Rollin' b/w Honey Hush, by Johnny Burnette and The Rock'n Roll Trio, was released on Coral Records in 1956. Train has since become a rock standard, reworked by the yardbirds (with jeff beck) in the '60 s and aerosmith in the '70 s.

- Guitar Shop, 1997