There's no question Elvis Presley was the explosive performer who lit the fuse for the Big Bang of Rock & Roll. It's doubtful anyone else could have done what he did in making Rock & Roll such a World Wide phenomena. But Rock & Roll was already well in progress long before he stepped into Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis. Infact, if the raw country swing of artists like Hank Williams and the electric blues boogie of artists like John Lee Hooker is what fathered Rock & Roll, it would be very hard to argue that Memphis, Tennessee isn't where the birthday party was celebrated. Rather than get into how rock's evolutionary tradition of constant musical fusion can be traced all the way back to the dance bands of the 1930s, I will concentrate here primarily on what was happening in Memphis as young Elvis tailored his hair after Tony Curtis and dreamed of becoming a crooner like Dean Martin who might also star in movies. But, let me quickly point out that what the teenage rockers of the 1950s were basically dancing was the Jitterbug!
Memphis in the early 1950s was a hotbed of musical intercourse. The street corners of Beale Street were alive with musicians, and you could also just stand outside raucous blues and hillbilly joints to get a good energy charge. There was Howlin' Wolf, who performed his dark and exciting blues not only in local nightspots, but also on local radio station KWEM (also referred to many times as WKEM). And, then, of course, there was also some pretty wild young white boys named Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette and Paul Burlison.
The Johnny Burnette Rock'n Roll Trio became a reality in 1953 when they settled into a new musical style that the world would soon know as rockabilly. Bill Haley and his western swing band had already scored with "Crazy, Man, Crazy" in 1952, the same year Lloyd Price had a major hit with "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." Those rockin' new sounds, the blues, and the hillbilly boogie of pivotal late 1940s groups like The Delmore Brothers, all merged together in the Trio's wild new sound which featured Dorsey's upright bass slapping and Johnny's singing punctuated with Rock & Roll's first screaming, while beating flat-top rhythm. While performing at a nightspot called The Hideaway, George Hawkins brought them a song he was working on. The Burnettes liked what they heard and began working on it. The way that song became "Rock Billy Boogie" and got credited for naming a new musical genre is best described by Paul, who told GUITAR PLAYER Magazine: "Rocky is Johnny's son and Billy is Dorsey's son, so I've known them since they were babies. When we used to rehearse over at Johnny and Dorsey's house, they'd each get their little toy guitar with the crank on the side and use a toilet plunger as their mike. They'd wiggle around and jump up and down, just like they were onstage." He laughed then, and again when he re-told the story of the rockin' toddlers to me as well. "It was a sight!"
It is a well-known fact that young Elvis Presley was keenly interested in the exciting new musical scene developing all around him in Memphis. Every opportunity he had he would check out blues artists and hillbilly bands. Like others he knew, Elvis didn't hesitate to get into nightclubs while under-aged, just so he could keep up with the music. And, whenever possible, he'd get up on stage and perform as well. And this is particularly true when it came to The Trio.
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