Dorsey Burnette - Golden Selection (Remastered) '2021

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Bertha Lou (Remastered)
02. Lets Fall in Love (Remastered)
03. Til the Law Says Stop (Remastered)
04. Hey Little One (Remastered)
05. At a Distance (Remastered)
06. (There Was A) Tall Oak Tree (Remastered)
07. Great Shakin Fever (Remastered)
08. Midnight Train (Remastered)
09. The Devils Queen (Remastered)
10. Jungle Magic (Remastered)
11. Try (Remastered)
12. Misery (Remastered)
13. Lonely Train (Remastered)
14. Juarez Town (Remastered)
15. Big Rock Candy Mountain (Remastered)
16. Your Love (Remastered)
17. Way in the Middle of the Night (Remastered)
18. The Ghost of Billy Malloo (Remastered)
19. Lucy Darlin (Remastered)
20. Black Roses (Remastered)
21. The River and the Mountain (Remastered)
22. This Hotel (Remastered)
23. Hard Rock Mine (Remastered)
24. Thats Me Without You (Remastered)
25. Rainin (Remastered)
26. A Full House (Remastered)
27. Circle Rock (Remastered)
28. House with a Tin Roof (Remastered)
29. Feminine Touch (Remastered)
30. Dying Ember (Remastered)
31. Rolling Restless Stones (Remastered)
32. Back to Nature (Remastered)
33. The Boys Kept Hangin Around (Remastered)
34. Im a Waitin for Ya Baby (Remastered)


 Read MoreDorsey, Johnny, and Burlison finally hooked up in mid-1952, working
as a trio and within other, larger groups. They cut their first record, Go Mule
Go/Youre Undecided, for the tiny Von label in 1954, their lineup augmented by a
fourth member, fiddler Tommy Seeley. That record may have sold fewer than 200
copies, but Dorsey Burnette wasnt to be stopped -- he claimed that the group
auditioned for Sam Phillips at Sun, but was rejected.

Dorsey worked his day jobs -- picking cotton, deckhand on a riverboat,
fisherman, carpet-layer, and electricians apprentice at Crown Electric. While he
was there, a day laborer a little younger than Dorsey who had grown up in the
same housing project quit his job to try making it in music after cutting a
couple of records. Elvis Presleys example, going off as part of a trio with
Scotty Moore and Bill Black, brought the Burnette brothers and company to the
decision to formalize their work together. Burlison and Burnettes subsequently
layoff from Crown Electric made the decision a no-brainer.

As a result, in early 1956, they were off to New York, where Dorsey Burnette and
Paul Burlison got jobs as electricians assistants while Johnny Burnette went to
work in the garment district in Manhattans West 30s. They decided to try out for
Ted Macks Amateur Hour, which was one of the top new talent showcases in the
country, just at the time when Elvis Presley -- now signed to RCA Victor -- was
burning up the airwaves with Heartbreak Hotel, and were picked to play on the
program. The group, known as the Rock n Roll Trio, won three successive shows
broadcast over the ABC network; by the time of the third they had professional
management, and soon after that they were signed to the Coral label, part of the
Decca Records (now MCA) family of labels.

The Rock n Roll Trio didnt last, either as a trio or a name, as they failed to
find any hits -- despite a killer version of Train Kept A-Rollin to their credit
-- and by late 1957 they were getting billed as Johnny Burnette & the Rock n
Roll Trio. This was probably as much a marketing ploy as a reflection of the
reality that a fourth member, in the person of a drummer, had joined the group
-- Johnny Burnette was a good rock & roll name to push in lieu of the groups
moniker, although Dorsey was the one who did most of the songwriting and had
also sung lead on some of their numbers. He couldnt stomach the change in
billing or his younger brothers sudden push to the front, and finally quit the
group and returned to Memphis just prior to the groups scheduled appearance in
the Alan Freed jukebox movie Rock Rock Rock.

He tried assembling his own group, Dorsey Burnette & the Rock n Roll Trio, but
they never caught on and disbanded before 1958 was over. He tried reconstituting
himself as a solo act and got an offer to go out to California to appear on the
Town Hall Party (the West Coasts leading country music showcase), rejecting the
chance to work the Louisiana Hayride. He moved his whole family -- including
Johnny, who was no longer recording, under his name or any other -- out with him
and struggled to make ends meet, working as an electrician and writing songs in
his spare time.

It was Burnettes brashness in walking up to the home of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson
-- famous from television and radio as entertainers, and the parents of Ricky
and David Nelson -- and asking to speak to Ricky that got him his break as a
songwriter. Rick Nelson literally pulled up on his motorcycle, accepted Dorseys
introduction, and had him and Johnny audition right there. He ended up recording
a dozen of their songs, most of them written by Dorsey Burnette, and his success
with Waitin in School got the Burnettes a new contract with Imperial Records and
Dorsey a hookup with Imperials publishing division, Commodore Music.

Roy Brown later covered Dorsey and Johnnys Hip Shakin Baby, and Dorsey managed
to get a solo hit in 1959 on the Era label with Tall Oak Tree, a song that Rick
Nelson had rejected. Ironically, given Johnny Burnettes prominence, Dorseys
first hit came five months before his brother finally reached the charts with
Dreamin. The two successes led Coral Records to dig into their vaults and
release a 1957-vintage single of Blues Stay Away from Me.

The Burnettes never had another hit, although Dorsey kept writing and recording
long after Tall Oak Tree. His contract was sold to the Dot label (now owned by
MCA), and he cut three singles and an album during the six months he was there.
During this period, eight-year-old Billy Burnette made his recording debut on
the maudlin Little Child, which mercifully wasnt released until 1992.

Dorsey Burnettes family life took a tragic turn from which he never fully
recovered in 1964, when Johnny Burnette died in a drowning accident. The
surviving brother, driven by guilt or depression and his self-destructive
nature, became a chronic alcoholic and drug abuser, his musical abilities and
reliability suffering in the process as he staggered from failure to failure
across a dozen labels over the next 15 years. Dorsey found some belated comfort
in Christianity, becoming born again in the 1970s and returning to where he
started, in country music. His country recordings for Capitol Records got him
pegged as most promising newcomer by one music organization that never
recognized his earlier activity in rock & roll, and revitalized his career. By
then, Burnette was appearing in small venues and playing to anyone who would pay
him, getting into fights occasionally, and taking too many drinks and too many
pills. In his shows, he would do his newer songs and a few of the old rockabilly
numbers like Tear It Up, which he counted as country music.

Somehow, he never found the right label once the Capitol contract was over. In
1979, however, he signed a contract with Elektra Records and began recording
with fellow former rockabilly star Jimmy Bowen. Things looked promising, and
Burnette, whose fame in England had never subsided (American rockabilly stars
being treated like Olympian demigods anywhere but America), even supposedly did
a recording session with Led Zeppelin (according to rumor). The first single by
Burnette and Bowen had just been released when Burnette died of a heart attack
on August 19, 1979. Among those who performed at the benefit concert organized
on behalf of Burnettes widow by Delaney Bramlett were Kris Kritofferson, Tanya
Tucker, Roger Miller, and Glen Campbell.

Dorsey Burnette will probably always be best remembered as a member of the Rock
n Roll Trio in association with his brother Johnny, their work spread between
the MCA and Capitol/EMI labels (which took over the Liberty catalog), but he
spent most of his time in music as a solo act, whether he was recording or
writing songs. Apart from Tall Oak Tree and Hey Little One, he recorded an
impressive array of soulful pop and rockabilly numbers, eerily recalling Elvis
Presleys 1950s and early-60s sound (only Burnettes songs are better), most of
which are worth owning. ~ Bruce Eder

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