Search - Johnny Burnette :: 25 Greatest Hits

I Confess; I Don't Have This One*

Eclectic Revisited | Arizona | 11/10/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As I write this, I am grateful to find nobody has reviewed it, otherwise, there would likely be at least one aspiring rockabilly strummer to point out the shortage of tunes by the Johnny Burnette Trio. As it is, there are a few of his charted songs missing, but not too many. Most obvious is beyond the few if impressive hits JB had in 1960-61, there are a wealth of songs from other artists he covered and I HAVE heard THEM*. Pop music lovers really didn't buy that many albums back then; we waited for the hit single and laid our dollar down. "Girl of My Best Friend" as done by Elvis Presley and later by his imitator, Ral Donner, is one notable cover tune here. Then there was "Moody RIver" (Pat Boone), "Mona Lisa" (more than one), "Dream Lover" (Bobby Darin), "Lover's Question" (Clyde McPhatter), "Let's Think About Living" (Bob Luman), "Crying in the Chapel" (The Orioles, Elvis P), "It's Only Make Believe" (Conway Twitty), etc etc. In some cases the tunes were the signature songs of the original artists. Those are the ones you should own. There are better Burnette compilations; you'll find them (and whining rockabill-ers) on Amazon."

A great rock'n'roll singer

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 03/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Johnny and his brother Dorsey were born and raised in Memphis, where they went to the same school as Elvis Presley and even worked at the same electrical company as Elvis, before any of them became famous. After a spell as a boxer, Johnny eventually tried to join Sun records but was rejected as being too much like Elvis.



With his brother, Johnny established a successful songwriting partnership, writing several of Ricky Nelson's hits. Eventually, Johnny did find a record company with which he had some success and this compilation is proof of that.



Despite the title, Johnny didn't come close to having 25 hits of any size - however, the few hits that he had are all here including the two big ones - Dreaming and You're sixteen, both of which were UK top five hits. Ringo Starr covered You're sixteen in the seventies and returned the song to the UK top five. Johnny's other UK hits were Little boy sad, Girls and Clown shoes. In America, he had a few other hits including Big big world and God country and my baby.



Those five UK hits occupy the first five tracks here. The remainder of the compilation includes a mix of original songs and covers. Among the covers are songs that were hits for Elvis (Girl of my best friend, Crying in the chapel), Conway Twitty (It's only make believe, Mona Lisa) and Bobby Darin (Dream Lover).



Johnny eventually died in a boating accident while on a fishing trip in 1964. Dorsey died of a heart attack in 1979. At least they left a musical legacy that we can enjoy."