Search - Johnny Burnette :: Dreamin: Very Best of

Nothing Wrong With This CD

09/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You have to think that a couple of the other reviewers don't actually HAVE this CD, otherwise how could he call Tear It Up and The Train Kept A Rollin" [both done by The Johnny Burnette Trio in the mid-1950s] "dreck?" Besides, that so-called "dreck" turned into four Top 20 hits in 1960/61. What was he supposed to do, stick to the stuff that did not sell and starve?



This younger brother of Dorsey Burnette also attended the same high school as Elvis Presley and worked for the same electrical firm in Memphis. After forming the trio with his brother and guitarist Paul Burlison they won three times on the Arthur Godfrey Amateur Hour TV show in New York, and then made appearances on the Steve Allen show, appeared in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock, and continued to cut singles for Decca's Coral subsidiary. But they hardly "set the world on fire" as nothing they did could attain any national commercial success.



In 1958 Johnny switched to the Freedom label, a Liberty subsidiary, but more Rockabilly singles there also failed to dent the charts. Time to switch focus or go back to the electric company. Then came some of that "dreck" - Dreamin' in summer 1960 - which rose to # 11 b/w Cincinnati Fireball, followed by his biggest hit, You're Sixteen, a # 8 that fall b/w I Beg Your Pardon, and later a # 1 for Ringo Starr in 1974.



His first release in 1961, Little Boy Sad, peaked at # 17 [the flip (I Go) Down To The River is omitted here], followed by Big, Big World {# 58 in May b/w Ballad Of The One-Eyed Jacks - also omitted] and, late that fall, God, Country And My Baby with The Johnny Mann Singers. That reached # 18 b/w Honestly I Do, another omission from this set. In 1961 he also teamed again with Dorsey as The Texans to take Green Grass of Texas to # 100 for the Infinity label.



This brief spasm as a teenage idol was then followed by chart oblivion, as nothing he did at Capitol, Chancellor, and Sahara could put him back on the charts. Whether it was "dreck" or his previous style. He had just formed his own label, Magic Lamp, when he died in a boating accident while fishing on August 1, 1964. His son Rocky Burnette had a # 8 Billboard Pop Hot 100/# 39 Adult Contemporary hit in 1980 with Tired Of Toein' The Line.



There is nothing wrong with the offerings here. If you were around when Johnny recorded these hits and liked them then, you will like them even better this time around as the sound quality is excellent.

"

Sounding Good

Dave K. | TX, USA | 07/10/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In addition to his biggest hits (Dreamin', Your Sixteen, etc.) this CD has numerous tunes I had not heard Johnny B. sing before. I Beg Your Pardon and Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee are a couple of examples I liked best. If you yearn for 60's music, I think you'll like this CD."