. . Reflections . . . Chart
"Big, Big World:"
"Dreamin'"
With brother Dorsey Burnette and guitarist Paul Burlison, Johnny Burnette had success in Memphis as "The Johnny Burnette Rock'n'Roll Trio." But in 1958 he went west to Los Angeles and visited the Nelson's house where he auditioned some songs he had written for the young Ricky Nelson. Nelson liked the songs and turned several into hits ("Waitin' In School," "Stood Up," and "Believe What You Say"). In 1960, Johnny got his own recording contract with Liberty records and had a hit with "Dreamin'" that charted at #11 in Billboard. Johnny Burnette died in a boating accident in 1964. His son, Rocky Burnette would have a hit in 1980 with "Tired of Toein' the Line."
Top recordings from The Elvis ERA:

title week debuted highest ranking weeks on chart
Dreamin' 8/15/1960 11 11
You're Sixteen 11/21/1960 8 11
Little Boy Sad 2/20/1961 17 6
Big, Big World 5/6/1961

God, Country and My Baby 11/6/1961 18 4
Johnny Burnette
"Johnny Burnette's Hits and other Favorites" was one of the original stereo lp's I purchased through the record club my mother helped me to join in 1961. It became one of my favorites as I liked most of Johnny Burnette's popular hits ("God, Country and My Baby" being an exception as I found it a little too "schmaltzie") and was especially fond of "Big, Big World" which didn't make the Top 40 -- the lyric, "Big big world can be unkind, the phone just took my last dime" is a favorite. But I also liked his "covers" of other popular songs. It was a common practice during the "Elvis Era" for artists to do versions of other singers' popular songs to fill out their albums. (This is different from the early rock and roll "covers" that were copies of singles that were actually released to compete with the originals -- such as Gale Storm's version of Frankie Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall In Love.") In the case of this album, I actually found many of Johnny Burnette's versions to be at least as good, if not better than the originals. I still enjoy listening to his renditions of Pat Boone's "Moody River," Bobby Edward's "You're the Reason," and Ral Donner's "Girl of My Best Friend"