Johnny Burnette was a
Rockabilly pioneer born on
March 25 ,
1934 in
Memphis, Tennessee. Along with his brother
Dorsey Burnette and a friend, Paul Burlison, in the early 1950s he formed the Johnny Burnette Rock and Roll Trio. They are considered to be the ones who originally coined the phrase "
Rockabilly". Although they managed to get a recording contract, in 1957 the group split up due to a lack of commercial success but while living in
California in
1960 Burnette had a back-to-back major hits with songs he wrote titled
Dreamin and
You're Sixteen followed by
Little Boy Sad a year later.
Johnny Burnette's career was cut short at the age of 30 when he drowned in a boating accident on August 14, 1964. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
His name and song-writing abilities gained prominence again when Ringo Starr released a cover of You're Sixteen in 1973.
