JOHNNY RIVERS : POST (210) HOLLYWOOD REALLY WAS FULL OF STARS! FROM OUR ARCHIVES

POST (210) HOLLYWOOD REALLY WAS FULL OF STARS!

FROM OUR ARCHIVES dated November 11 2008

When I moved to Los Angeles - Hollywood - one of the first things that I noticed that's different today - fifty years later - is that Hollywood really was full of stars. Not only were movies being made locally but the stars took it upon themselves to dine out and shop and be seen right there along Hollywood Boulevard where the Hollywood Walk of Fame is now. The photographers prowled and it seemed everyone was dressed, made-up, ready, willing, available for a "photo op."



I had met the actress Christine White in Hollywood as a tourist, before I was discovered in Akron, Ohio in 1957, and when I moved to Los Angeles Hollywood became my scene. I went to restaurants and clubs where business and pleasure were conducted. The area around Capitol Records which had the famous circular building that looked like a stack of albums - if you stretched your imagination a bit - seemed to be the epicenter of my scene.


When Johnny Rivers, Johnny Burnette, and I would motorcycle around town, we'd park our bikes across from the Brown Derby restaurant where there was a hot dog stand we liked near the Huntington-Hartford theatre. From there we watched the girls.

BEATLES COVER JOHNNY BURNETTE'S LONESOME TEARS IN MY EYES (Live at the BBC)

This is a find! The Beatles live on the BBC radio singing a Johnny Burnett song, July 1963... You know one of the themes of this blog is THE AMERICAN INVASION OF BRITAIN!

(326) DORSEY and JOHNNY BURNETT and RICK NELSON

Both Dorsey and Johnny became really good friends of mine, Johnny especially; he was the younger brother. They were both nice guys. They treated people well and that always counts. They had both worked at Crown Electric where Elvis worked before he turned to music as his way to make a living. Elvis felt a loyalty there and they agreed not to record the same song.

JOHNNY AND DORSEY BURNETT WROTE A GOOD NUMBER OF SONGS THAT RICK NELSON RECORDED.

The link above is to THE HISTORY OF ROCK.COM article about THE BURNETTES

(325) JOHNNY RIVERS INTRODUCED ME TO JOHNNY and DORSEY BURNETT

JOHNNY RIVERS came out to Los Angeles from New York... following what seemed to be an exodus of talent to the West Coast from the East. Seemed like only Ersel Hickey remained behind. Johnny taught Ersel some guitar chords back in New York and then the two of them wrote a song for me. And when Johnny came out he stayed with me and my brother for some time while he tried and tried again... I've said it before and I'll say it again "JOHNNY RIVERS WOULD NOT QUIT!"

Though I met a lot of great artists in New York and on my tours, there were others I really wanted to meet that I met through Johnny.

Johnny is the person who introduced me to Johnny and Dorsey Burnett. Another song that Johnny liked to cover at Elvis' house parties is this one by Dorsey, "Hey Little One."

(277) DORSEY BURNETTE and Elvis and Me THE DYING EMBER

Johnny's brother Dorsey Burnett recorded a song called "The Dying Ember" that I wrote along with a songwriter named Fred Horton. The song had been pitched to Elvis, who loved it. He began experimenting with it in his home studio at Graceland TM...

Dorsey Burnette was a prolific Memphis born songwriter in his own right, whose songs were recorded by Glen Campbell and Rick Nelson, among others.

"The Dying Ember" came out in 1962 on Dot Records as a single.

The song came out again in 1963 in stereo and on his 1992 album called "Great Shakin Fever."

YOUTUBE VIDEO REMOVED OCT 28, 2010

RINGO RECORDED JOHNNY BURNETT's HIT YOU'RE SIXTEEN

Johnny Burnett had a hit with You're Sixteen about 1961 and it went to about #3 when the song was at its height. It became a classic.



Ringo Starr made the song famous all over again...

(276) LIBERTY RECORDS - NEW HOME TO BUDDY KNOX, JOHNNY BURNETT, and THE CRICKETS

Johnny Burnette, Buddy Knox, and The Crickets were recording for LIBERTY RECORDS by '62. We're linking to Dave Edwards and Mike Callahan here, as they have made a great effort to present the history of record labels and this link links to a whole discography. (Click on the title above.)

Now as a songwriter at American Music, I had some intellectual properties that I had signed over the rights to the company for - temporarily. Those properties have been returning to me over the last several years. And one of the songs I was so proud of and originially wrote with Elvis in mind got recorded instead by Johnny's brother Dorsey Burnette...

(210) HOLLYWOOD REALLY WAS FULL OF STARS !

When I moved to Los Angeles - Hollywood - one of the first things that I noticed that's different today - fifty years later - is that Hollywood really was full of stars. Not only were movies being made locally but the stars took it upon themselves to dine out and shop and be seen right there along Hollywood Boulevard where the Hollywood Walk of Fame is now. The photographers prowled and it seemed everyone was dressed, made-up, ready, willing, available for a "photo op."

I had met the actress Christine White in Hollywood as a tourist, before I was discovered in Akron, Ohio in 1957, and when I moved to Los Angeles Hollywood became my scene. I went to restaurants and clubs where business and pleasure were conducted. The area around Capitol Records which had the famous circular building that looked like a stack of albums - if you stretched your imagination a bit - seemed to be the epicenter of my scene.

When Johnny Rivers, Johnny Burnette, and I would motorcycle around town, we'd park our bikes across from the Brown Derby restaurant where there was a hot dog stand we liked near the Huntington-Hartford theatre. From there we watched the girls.

(184) PAT BOONE MIGHT'VE BEEN ELVIS' BIGGEST COMPETITOR ! 12 GOLD RECORDS BY 1961

My voice had once been compared to his...You may find this hard to believe today, but there was one person who was better liked during the early Rock and Roll era by the general public than Elvis, and that was Pat Boone, who never did have that dark edge of a Rock-a-billy artist that Elvis had and had a wider audience.

Now friends, we're still in the cover tune era here, so you'll find if you look at who recorded what and when you'll find that songs that Pat recorded were later recorded by other artists we mention. For instance, Pat recorded "Moody River," in 1961 and the next year Johnny Burnette recorded it. So do you think I was pitching songs to Pat?

You'd better believe it. Pat started his own publishing company called Cooga Mooga! (Guess who eventually did some work for Pat there?)

Here's Pat on the Lawrence Welk show singing "Moody River," and then Johnny Burnette's 1962 version, as presented by YouTube video-ers. As Lawrence mentions, Pat had 12 Gold Records by the time he did this show.

Pat Boone on the Welk singing "Moody River."

Johnny Burnette covering "Moody River," (and sounding very Elvis-like.)

Now a little later, when Frank Sinatra gets his own label, Reprise, he records "Moody River" too. Here's his swinging 60's version. My co-worker at American Music, Jimmy Bowen went to Reprise as Frank's producer.

No replacement for Johnny Burnette. Frank's version of "Moody River." VIDEOS RELACED APRIL 2011