Johnny died in a fishing accident in 1964 and, when Dorsey followed him after a heart attack in 1979, Burlison recorded A Tribute to Johnny and Dorsey Burnette with the Sun rhythm section in Memphis. Burlison did some UK dates with the musicians, and also worked with Johnny’s son Rocky, and Dorsey’s, Billy. “Listen to my guitar on ‘Lonesome Train’, and then hear Johnny screaming and carrying on,” said Burlison. “We were complementing each other.” Coral changed the name to Johnny Burnette and the Rock & Roll Trio, which incensed Dorsey. He quit just before the Trio was to appear in the film Rock! Rock! Rock! (1956).

Burlison and Johnny Burnette took Dorsey’s suit and cut it to size for Johnny Black, brother of Elvis’s bass player Bill Black. In sheer annoyance, Dorsey formed Dorsey Burnette and the Rock & Roll Trio, but eventually the brothers came back together to write hit songs for Ricky Nelson.Although their records had not sold well at the time, a mint copy of the UK release of the Rock & Roll Trio’s album Johnny Burnette and the Rock & Roll Trio is worth over £1,000 today. The Beatles performed “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” and Paul McCartney included “Honey Hush” on Run Devil Run (1999). The Yardbirds recorded “Train Kept A-Rollin’ ” and Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and later Brian Setzer have all praised Burlison Page said, He was a massive influence to me. The best performance was the energetic boogie “Tear It Up”, which they had written.That July Coral decided that the Trio should record in Nashville with the producer Owen Bradley The first session was a revelation. Burlison had dropped his Fender Deluxe amplifier before a stage show and a valve had come loose. Burlison liked the buzzes and crackles, so he retained the faulty connection, thus creating the first example of “fuzzbox guitar” on record.The trio recorded some marvellous tracks including “Honey Hush”, “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes”, “Sweet Love on My Mind” and “Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track)”.

They added a drummer, Eddie Gray, and also a 32-piece orchestra for “Shattered Dreams”. They appeared with Mack’s road show and returned for the final on 9 September 1956, the same evening as Elvis Presley made his d?t on The Ed Sullivan Show.The Rock & Roll Trio had impressed Coral Records – they had their first session in May 1956 at the Pythian Temple in New York, which is where Bill Haley recorded. They took menial jobs and appeared as a novelty act on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, which was screened nationally and which they won for three consecutive weeks. After Burlison and Dorsey Burnette were laid off at Crown Electric in March 1956, they drove to New York in an old car with no heating or windscreen wipers. Johnny Burnette would eye up the girls in the audience and the evenings would often end in a fracas. One night Burlison was ill and couldn’t play, and Dorsey Burnette was stabbed in the bottom with a knife. Burnette’s father woke Burlison at four in the morning, kicking him out of his sick bed and making him join a posse to deal with the perpetrator.Strangely, the Rock & Roll Trio was turned down by Sam Phillips at Sun Records, but perhaps he recognised their instability.