New Line Up
Burlison and Johnny Burnette hastily recruited Johnny Black, the brother of Elvis’s bassist Bill Black as a replacement for Dorsey, and his uniform was cut down to Johnny Black’s size. The remains of Pajad Corp. bought Black an acoustic bass and placed him on salary. He joined the group in time to be filmed in their spot in the movie, where they played Lonesome Train (On A Lonesome Track). To coincide with the release of the film, a fourth Coral single "Lonesome Train (On A Lonesome Track)" backed with "I Just Found Out" (Coral 61758) was released on January 5, 1957 under the name of the Johnny Burnette Trio, but, like the group’s earlier releases, it failed to chart.
In the meantime, Dorsey returned to Memphis and found himself a lead guitarist and a bassist whilst he switched to rhythm guitar and vocals. Calling themselves Dorsey Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio, they briefly toured the South before calling it quits.
Despite their earlier failures, Coral still seemed to have faith in the commercial future of The Rock and Roll Trio, even with their revamped line-up. On March 22, 1957 they organized what was to be the Trio’s last recording session at the Bradley Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. On this occasion, however, the identity of the personnel involved is open to question. Adam Komorowski has stated that despite the split, Dorsey was forced to attend this session because of contractual obligations. According to the discography used by Colin Escott of Showtime Magazine, Dorsey, Johnny and Paul took part in this session. According to Nashville session double bassist Bob Moore who was present at the Nashville sessions, Dorsey and Paul were replaced by himself and Grady Martin. The 1957 sessions are clearly more in line with the contemporary Nashville sound of the day and without the same rockabilly upbeat tempos produced in the 1956 sessions of the trio recorded in New York, followed by Nashville 1956 sessions.
French researchers Gilles Vignal and Marc Alesina, however, have produced a discography which has only Johnny Burnette present at the session. According to them, Burnette played acoustic guitar and sang vocals, whilst Thomas Grady Martin played electric guitar, Bob L. Moore played string bass and Farris Coursey was on drums. On this session, four tracks, "Touch Me", "If You Want Enough", "Butterfingers" and "Eager Beaver Baby" were cut. Taking a cue from Elvis and the Jordanaires, Owen Bradley lined up a vocal group for two tracks: "Butterfingers" and "If You Want It Enough". Following the session Johnny and the Trio toured with Gene Vincent, and in published snapshots, only Johnny Burnette, Paul Burlison and Johnny Black appear with Gene Vincent.
On May 20, 1957, Coral released a fifth single, "Eager Beaver Baby" backed with "Touch Me" (Coral 61829), and on September 2, 1957 they released a sixth single "Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" backed with "Butterfingers" (Coral 61869). In both cases, these singles were released under the name of Johnny Burnette, but neither of these releases had any chart success. Also in 1957, Coral released a 10” LP, which was entitled “Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n Roll Trio" (Coral CRL 57080). Curiously it did not include their first single “Tear It Up”.
Read more about this topic: The Rock And Roll Trio
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