The trio together with Tommy Seeley and Albert Vescovo had their first recording session with the Von Theater in Boonville, which booked the Burnettes and other talent from out of town. Hayden Thompson, who also recorded for VON, has asserted that the label was unconnected with the theatre. Music writer Adam Komorowski, however, states that the label owner Sam Thomas had named the label after the theatre. The session was arranged and paid for by
Eddie Bond's father, Bill Bond, who wanted to manage the band. The
Record Exchanger No. 26, however, noted that the session was set up and A & R'd by Buddy Bain, a disc-jockey and performer in
Corinth, Mississippi. Their first single was "You're Undecided"(any early indication of their rockabilly style) backed with "Go Mule Go" (Von 1006), released under the name Johnny Burnette. It sold fewer than 200 copies. There is some disagreement over the year in which this single was released. The
Guinness Book Of Rock Stars suggests that the year was 1953, but other sources suggest 1954, and others suggest November 1955. The trio were said to have auditioned for
Sun Records but were turned down by
Sam Phillips, apparently because they sounded too much like
Elvis Presley. Whether or not this audition took place, however, remains a matter of dispute. Dorsey Burnette has stated that they recorded a demo session for Sun. He said, "We took Sam Phillips some songs and he turned 'em down, but they weren't very good anyway." In an article for
TV Radio Mirror, Johnny Burnette recalled that he and Dorsey had auditioned for Sun Records and had been chased back onto the street when the fiddler's bridge broke. No tapes of any such audition have ever been found, although this could be explained by the fact that
Sam Phillips was prone to record over tapes. More importantly, however, Burlison later insisted that the group did not audition at Sun at all, and he recalled the incident of the fiddler's bridge taking place during the recording of "Go Mule Go". If they did not, they were one of the few KWEM regulars not to do so. As the trio was only a loose aggregation until 1956, then it is possible that the Burnettes may have auditioned at Sun without Burlison. Sources also vary as to the time of the alleged audition. Some suggest 1954, but others have put it in early 1956, with only Dorsey and Johnny Burnette present. From 1954 to February 1956, the trio played at the Hideaway Club in
Middleton, Tennessee, with the Doc MacQueen Swing Band. As well as their work with the band they were to have an intermission spot of their own, and by 1956 the trio had built a strong reputation in and around Memphis. But the earnings from these session did not provide them with enough on which to live, and so all three had daytime jobs. Both Paul Burlison and Dorsey Burnette were working for the Crown Electric Company as journeyman and apprentice electrician respectively, and Johnny held down a number of jobs, including one selling dishes and appliances door to door, another as a Repo Man and also as a deck hand on barges traversing the
Mississippi River. In February/March 1956, Paul Burlison and Dorsey Burnette were laid off from Crown Electric. As they both needed to secure regular pay-cheques, they decided to drive to
New York in the hope of gaining jobs there through the electrician's union. Paul Burlison was to later recall that "they could not make it alone on what they were being paid on Friday and Saturday nights at the Hideaway. So we thought, until things picked up in Memphis, they would go to New York and work awhile." After discussing the move with their wives and other family members, the trio drove to New York through one of the worst snowstorms to hit the Northeast in many years. They stopped off briefly in
Brownsville in order to inform Doc McQueen of their move. McQueen is reported to have said, "Let me know if you make it big." When they arrived in New York, they took rooms in the
YMCA. Paul and Dorsey started work as electricians, and Johnny worked in the garment district. They then found out about the Wednesday night auditions for the Ted Mack
Original Amateur Hour, and they joined the endless queue of show business hopefuls.
Elvis Presley had only hit the big time in late January 1956, and someone in the Mack audition crew thought that the Burnettes and Burlison might reach the same market. So they were given the fast track and appeared on the show, which was networked nationally by
ABC. They won three straight appearances in April and May 1956, which gained them a slot on the finalists' tour on 9 September 1956, their appearance being unfortunately telecast live from New York opposite to that of Elvis Presley's first appearance at the Ed Sullivan Show which was also beamed live from Los Angeles, and capturing the highest share
in the history of US television, an 82.6%, which meant the finals of the Arthur Godfrey Show were seen by less than 5 million viewers. A newspaper clip on the day after their third win on the Ted Mack Show referred to them as "the Rock and Roll Boys from Memphis". Between their second and third appearances, they were spotted by
Bill Randle, who was a disc-jockey on WERE,
Cleveland. Randle telephoned his friend
Henry Jerome, who was a band leader at the
Hotel Edison at the time, and he told Jerome to watch the trio's next appearance on television. Jerome was impressed by what he saw that he contacted the Burnettes and Burlison and signed them to a management contract. He got Johnny a daytime job as an elevator operator at the Hotel Edison and moved the trio there from the
YMCA. He secured a contract for the trio with GAC (General Artist Corporation) and with the Coral division of
Decca Records. Paul Burlison was to say later that he believed that they made a mistake by signing with
Coral Records. "
Capitol Records was after us, ABC Paramount, Chess and Decca," Burlison remembered. "I wanted to go to Capitol but they said it didn't matter, a hit record would make us rich." It was at this time that the Burnettes and Burlison formally adopted the name of the Rock and Roll Trio. This was something of a compromise, which was reached after Johnny's suggestion of the Burnette Brothers had been countered by Burlison's suggestion of the Burlison Brothers. They had already rejected the name, the Rock and Roll Boys from Memphis. Jerome also set up a corporation called Pajad (PA-ul, J-ohnny A-nd D-orsey) Enterprises in which the proceeds of their earnings were to be split equally for five years. Jerome placed the boys on salary and he would later cut himself in for composer's royalties on some of the tunes, working under the pseudonym of
Al Mortimer. After signing with Coral, the Rock and Roll Trio were placed with A & R director
Bob Thiele, who took them to the
Pythian Temple in
New York City for their first recording session. The Pythian Temple was where
Bill Haley & His Comets had cut "
Rock Around the Clock". The first session was held on 7 May 1956, and before the session began, Johnny, Dorsey and Paul were surprised to find the 32-piece
Dick Jacobs Orchestra sitting in the studio. They were to be paid the union scale of $41.25 each to sit and watch the Rock and Roll Trio perform their original rockabilly tunes. Only the drummer, Eddie Gray, who had his own group called Eddie Gray and the Commanders, was used on the sessions. The session began with "Shattered Dreams", which was a
George Motola tune. The Rock and Roll Trio did not feel comfortable with it, and the results were considered unsuitable for commercial release.
Bob Thiele had, however, listened to the early
Carl Perkins and
Elvis Presley recordings, and he talked to the boys about creating their own sound. He had decided that a sound awash in treble would be the key to success. He told Burlison to turn up the treble on the amp, which created a pinched, stinging tone to Paul's lead guitar. The rest of the session produced four songs, "Midnight Train", "Tear It Up", "Oh Baby Babe" and a reprise of the old Von cut "You're Undecided". On May 26, 1956, Coral released the Trio's first single "Tear It Up" backed with "You're Undecided" (Coral 61651), and they jumped into Dorsey's 1955
Ford for appearances on
Dick Clark's
American Bandstand,
Steve Allen's
Tonight Show and
Perry Como's
Kraft Music Hall. They were on their way as a touring act and ready to bring rockabilly into American homes. The record sold strongly in many markets, becoming a hit in
Boston and
Baltimore, but it failed to make the national charts. With only one single left in the can, Coral rushed Johnny, Paul and Dorsey back into the studio, but this time it was to be in Owen Bradley's Studio at 804 16th Avenue South,
Nashville, Tennessee, from July 2–5, 1956 and teamed up with Buddy Harman on drums for the full session and the great Grady Martin on guitar for July 5. These sessions were judged to have been enormously successful, and on August 4, 1956, Coral released a second single: "Midnight Train" backed with "Oh Baby Babe" (Coral 61675). This again failed to make the national charts, and without a hit record, the trio needed to play live dates in order to promote themselves and more particularly to earn money. During the summer of 1956, they toured with
Ted Mack's Touring show and with
Carl Perkins and
Gene Vincent. On September 9, 1956, they appeared on the final of the
Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour at
Madison Square Garden, where amongst other songs, they played "Tear It Up" and "Hound Dog". As a result of this appearance, on October 13, 1956, Coral issued their third single, "
The Train Kept A-Rollin'" backed with "
Honey Hush" (Coral 61719), but again, it failed make the national charts. Having used a drummer on their Nashville recording sessions, it was decided to add a drummer to their line-up. When the Trio told
Carl Perkins that they were looking for a drummer, Perkins recommended his cousin Tony Austin, who had played a few dates with him around their hometown of
Jackson, Tennessee, before he had recruited
W. S. Holland. Following Perkins' recommendation, the Burnettes swung through to pick him up, and Austin became part of the group. After Austin was hired,
Henry Jerome started billing the group as Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio on live dates. This name was used on their first two singles, and on their third single they were known as The Johnny Burnette Trio. Dorsey was incensed by this as he had taken the lead on a few songs, including "Sweet Love On My Mind", "My Love You´re A Stranger" and "Blues Stay Away From Me". He wanted to retain the more democratic name Rock and Roll Trio despite the fact that the group was now a quartet. The band was constantly on the road, completing what seemed to be an endless stream of one-night stands in order to cover their living expenses. This exhausting regime led to squabbles, which were exacerbated by lack of chart success. These squabbles finally came to a head at a gig in
Niagara Falls in the Fall of 1956, where, after a fight, Dorsey quit the group and handed back his band uniform. This happened a week before the Trio were due to appear in
Alan Freed's movie
Rock, Rock, Rock. ==New line-up==