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John Joseph "Johnny" Burnette (March 25, 1934August 14, 1964) was a Rockabilly pioneer. Along with his older brother Dorsey Burnette and a friend named Paul Burlison, Johnny Burnette was a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. He was the father of 1980s rockabilly singer Rocky Burnette. Early life Johnny Burnette was born to Willie May and Dorsey Burnett Sr. in Memphis, Tennessee. (The e at the end of the name was added later.) Johnny grew up with his parents and Dorsey in a public housing project in the Lauderdale Courts area of Memphis, which from 1948 until 1954, was also the home of Gladys and Vernon Presley and their son, Elvis. Early press reports dating from 1956, claimed that Johnny attended Humes High School with Elvis Presley, which was not true. Johnny went initially to the Blessed Sacrament Parochial School and after graduating from the eighth grade he moved on to the Catholic High School in Memphis. Here he showed an aptitude for sports, being on the school baseball team and playing as linebacker on the schools football team. In one famous incident, he was knocked out in a tackle by future singer Red West. Both he and Dorsey were also keen amateur boxers and were to become Golden Gloves Champions. After leaving high school, Johnny tried his hand at becoming a professional boxer, but after one fight with a sixty dollar purse and a broken nose or an encounter with Norris Ray, a top paycheck of $150 and a broken nose, he decided to quit the ring. He went to work on the barges traversing the Mississippi River, where Dorsey Burnette also worked. Johnny worked mainly as a deck hand while Dorsey worked as an oiler. Both of the brothers worked separately, but they would take their guitars on board and write songs during their spare time. After work they would go back to Memphis, where they would perform those and other songs at local bars, with a varying array of sidemen, including another former Golden Gloves champion named Paul Burlison, whom Dorsey had met at an amateur boxing tournament in Memphis in 1949. [edit] The Rock and Roll Trio In 1952, the Burnette brothers and Burlison formed a group called The Rhythm Rangers at the time. Johnny Burnette sang the vocals and played acoustic guitar, Dorsey played bass and Paul Burlison played lead guitar. For economic reasons, in 1956, the three young men moved to New York, where they managed to get an audition with the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour. They won the competition three times in a row, which gained them a place in the finals, a recording contract with Coral Records and they officially became The Rock and Roll Trio. They also gained a manager, band leader Henry Jerome, and a drummer, Tony Austin, who was a cousin of Carl Perkins. Most of the most well known recordings of the Rock N Roll Trio were recorded on Coral records with the Nashville "A Team" session musicians—Grady Martin on lead guitar, Bob Moore on bass and Buddy Harman on drums. Promotional appearances were arranged on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, Steve Allen's Tonight Show and Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, together with a summer tour with Carl Perkins and Gene Vincent. On Sunday September 9, 1956, they appeared as finalists in the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour at Madison Square Garden. Coincidentally, the same night the Trio was on the Amateur Hour (ABC-TV), Elvis made his debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Despite all of this activity, however, the three singles, which were released over this period failed to make the national charts. In order to cover their living expenses, the Trio was forced to go on the road, completing what seemed to be an endless stream of one night stands. This exhausting regime led to squabbles, which were exacerbated in Dorseys case by Jeromes use of the name Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio on records and live dates. Things finally came to a head at a gig in Niagara Falls in autumn 1956, when, as a result of a fight, Dorsey quit the...