Elvis - Johnny Burnette Connection

	"OH BABY BABE" by Johnny Burnette Trio (Direct Play) (Download File - 385kb) "Baby Let's Play House" by Arthur Gunter (Direct Play) (Download File - 420kb)

From the Burnettes I had heard about how Elvis and them had known each other, played touch football together, worked at Crown Electric. I learned of the rivalry that went all the way back to those early days. Not having previously known about the Rock'n Roll Trio, all of this impressed me very much, but it didn't lessen my love for Elvis Presley and his music.

Both Johnny and Dorsey went to Catholic High School and did not attend Humes with Elvis. However, "Aunt Alberta," who did go to school with Elvis and ended up marrying Dorsey Burnette, clearly recalls the Burnette brothers regularlly hanging around the front lawn of Humes with their guitars and singing songs with a casual group of other young musicians that included Bill Black, Scotty Moore  and Elvis Presley. But, no deep friendship developed.

But neither Johnny nor Dorsey are around any longer for further verification. Nor is Elvis for that matter. But these accounts have
 been around long enough for Elvis to have discounted them had he never played with the Johnny Burnette Rock'n Roll Trio. The
 only things Rocky Burnette could tell me was that he had always heard that Elvis had sang and played guitar with The Trio, that he had wanted to join the band and that Dorsey had told him that the only lead singer for the Johnny Burnette Trio could be Johnny Burnette.

Paul Burlison also vaguely recalled that Johnny Burnette was also on stage. But whether it was a show where a bunch of different people got on stage at one time or another, ...or a Johnny Burnette Rock'n Roll Trio performance, he can't say for sure any longer. "Ask Robert Schaeffer," he told me, "he was a clean-up boy on the lot then. He was there, and he owns the place now. I'm sure he'd remember better than me." Well, after some telephone tag, I finally got to speak with Mr. Schaeffer.

Now 67 years old, he remembered the Johnny Burnette Trio very well, and he remembered Elvis getting up on the flatbed trailer and performing a bit. "Elvis lived down the street then. And I remember he got turned down at first. But eventually he was up on the stage too." He knows Paul was on the stage then, and he thought he recalled Johnny Burnette also being on the stage ...but he too couldn't recall if that was with the Johnny Burnette Rock'n Roll Trio or not.

I've read before that, in addition to an in-studio performance, Elvis had actually gotten up on stage and performed during two separate KWEM "live" remote broadcasts prior to Sun Studio. One was with the Johnny Burnette Rock'n Roll Trio at a used cars lot. The other had been from a mall, featuring "Shelby Fowler" with Paul Burlison having also joined in. Paul remembered the appearance at George Kleins KWEM show. "Elvis didn't go over too big on that," he said matter-of-factly. But Paul couldn't recall the Shelby Follin show having been at a mall.

As for Elvis having never heard nor seen The Trio perform because he was "too young" to get into nightclubs, Paul said, "Elvis got into any club he wanted to. He was out of high school." And to the assertion that Elvis didn't even know who they were, Paul remarked that Elvis came to their shows even when they didn't tell him about them.

He also clearly remembered the time when he and the Burnettes were walking down the street and Elvis and Bill Black exited a building right in front of them: "Elvis said 'Uh Oh, The Daltons. Let's cross over to the other side.' Well, we all had a good laugh and talked for awhile. You know, I always had the feeling that Elvis was afraid of Dorsey." And it is a fact that Presley referred to the Trio as The Dalton Gang because of their lack of hesitation to duke it out, usually with some jealous boyfriends at a nightclub.

So. I had learned that Elvis had performed with members of the Trio, but I had no confirmation that he had actually joined the
 wild-rocking Trio itself during his formative period just prior to Sun Studio. Yet there's no question that his initial private recordings
 were hardly rockers. And when Sam Phillips invited him in, it was "disastrous" at first, with Elvis unhesitatingly singing every Dean
 Martin song he knew, as well as Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow and Billy Eckstine. Elvis tried just about everything, and nothing was really clicking until that break where Elvis began "fooling around" with "That's All Right (Mama)."

And Elvis did say that definitive moment was more of a fluke than anything. Was that all it really was? It seemed very unlikely that Elvis could live in Memphis then, be interested in music and never had heard a happening band composed of people he knew and worked with. Considering how many who had been there had either died nor exercised those memories, I felt that it was now almost my duty to find someone who knew first hand whether this legendary musical crossing of paths had happened.

Barbara Pittman turned out to be the star witness. And I found her only when I thought of the Memphis Music Hall Of Fame. I called there one Saturday morning and just asked if there was anybody who might know for certain about Elvis having played with
  the Rock'n Roll Trio. I was told if I called back Monday and asked for Willie Pittman, the owner, he might be able to help me.

When I explained to Mr. Pittman that I was seeking first-hand confirmation that the Rock'n Roll Trio had been a direct influence upon Elvis Presley, he immediately said without hesitation: "Elvis Presley didn't invent Rock And Roll. Johnny and Dorsey Burnette invented Rockabilly!"

And when I asked about the used cars lot performance, he told me it was common knowledge in Memphis that Elvis not only sang and played with the Johnny Burnette Rock'n Roll Trio then, but on other occasions as well, when he'd get up while they were playing nightclubs and join them for a song or two.

But how did he himself know this to be the truth? I explained I needed to talk to someone who had been there and knew this from personal experience, so that I could document it at the Rockhall forum. Had Elvis really performed with the Burnette Trio prior to recording "That's All Right (Mama)?"

"No question about it! My wife Barbara was there. She knew Elvis very well before he made it. She also knew the Burnettes. They all knew each other. And she also dated Elvis, even when he lived in Graceland." Wow, pay dirt. What used to be her name? "Why, Pittman," he answered, "I took her name. She's Barbara Pittman and she used to sing with Clyde Leoppard's Snarly Ranch Boys, and she also recorded at Sun." Double Wow!

Jimmy Denson, Paul Burlison's boxing teacher, he not only confirmed how he had introduced Paul to Dorsey, he also told me how his family had also been close with the Presleys. Infact, he not only confirmed the J&S Auto show ("'Sambo' Barrom put that together with 'K-WAM'.)", at 70 he has a sharp memory and even remembers the day Elvis met the Burnette Brothers: "I was there watching. I know when it happened. All of 1946 my younger brother, Jesse Lee, was teaching guitar, singing and songwriting every day of the week to Dorsey Burnette, then in 1947 Johnny started with Jesse Lee for lessons every Saturday and Sunday.

And Gladys Presley always used to tell Jesse Lee that after she saved up $12.95 to buy Elvis a Gene Autry Harmony guitar she wanted him to teach Elvis the guitar. That took about 5 months because Vernon didn't want to work. Well, last week of February,1948, Jesse Lee took on Elvis, and they met right there in apartment 227E Winchester. I watched the first lesson. Infact Elvis joined Jesse's group, The Golden Boys All Guitar Band, singing backgound behind Jesse Lee, Johnny and Dorsey. May 15, 1948, Elvis giged all afternoon with Bill and Johnny Black, plus the Burnette brothers and Jesse Lee on the front porch of the Black home on Alabama, Lauderdale Courts.

Then Elvis cried like a baby because his mother wouldn't let him off the Lauderdale Courts property to play with the Burnettes at Millington Naval Base. He used to cry a lot. Well, after they played there, after the show, the Burnettes started fighting with the sailors. - Dorsey used to terrify Elvis. He'd chase him around, and Gladys trusted us to take care of her boy, so I talked to Dorsey and made him back off. But Dorsey was bad news at the time. He'd stop cars and fight 5 or 6 boys at a time. As a boxer he knocked down my hero, Charlie Jerome, who just died 3 days ago. He was a world contender.

Nobody could get Charlie Jerome, but Dorsey caught him. He was bad, the Mid South Welterweight Champion in 1949. At 16 years old he was knocking out all the men."  Subsequently Jesse Lee Denson himself returned my call and confirmed how after Gladys Presley bought a guitar to replace Elvis' cardboard one purchased the previous year in Mississippi, he began teaching Elvis guitar. And, that Elvis was indeed very familiar with the Burnettes, who were advanced performers, having begun on their own at age 5.

Anyway, about that Elvis song the Burnettes were ripped off for, one of the first songs the Trio wrote when they formed in '53 was "Oh Baby Babe," which quickly became a real crowd pleaser. But, before they could record it, Elvis recorded the virtually identical "Baby, Let's Play House" in February of 1955. Credited to Arthur Gunter of Nashville, Elvis' record replaces the then-racier "I just want to make love to you" with a cleaned-up "let's play house." Johnny's widow Thurla told me back in the 60s that Elvis knew full well that it was their song because he had heard them perform it. When I asked Paul about it and told him too often I'd read that THEY had copied Elvis' recording, he said "I don't know why anybody would think we'd want to sound like Elvis back then. He wasn't big or anything back then, we were just being ourselves. And I used to listen to radio all the time back then and I never heard of Arthur Gunter nor 'Baby, Let's Play House' until after Elvis made his record. And back then we didn't know much about suing or songwriters' rights. I guess we just took it as a compliment that he was copying us."