Rocky Burnette

Genre: Rock
Contact: Ronen Guha



BIOG

Rocky Burnette is an American singer, songwriter, and musician, best known for his 1980 hit single "Tired of Toein' the Line", a worldwide Top 10 hit in America, #8; Australia, #1;  #3, South Africa.
  
Rocky Burnette was born Jonathan Burnette on June 12, 1953, in Memphis, Tennessee. His father was the rockabilly hell-raiser Johnny Burnette.  Johnny Burnette and the Rock’n’Roll Trio’s eponymous 1957 album is a landmark album, becoming an instant classic and a mighty influence for upcoming generations.  Every song from the album has been covered ever since its release by bands ranging from the Beatles to Motorhead, and plenty in-between.  The group pioneered the classic Rockabilly / Rock’n’Roll genre; Uncle Dorsey Burnette belted out his ferocious double bass slappin’ whilst Paul Burlison’s reverb drenched guitar licks setting off chills’n’fever as all three punctuated their performances with animal-like uninhibited yelps of sheer vitality. 

Rocky’s musical calling found him following in his father's footsteps.  He began writing songs as a teenager and in 1967 began working in the music business for Acuff-Rose Music publishers.  Rocky teamed up with Bill House and Jim Seiter two musician / composers breaking into record production, and decided to take the leap to becoming a recording artist performing his own songs. 
  
In 1979, with a little help from Burt Berman, House and Seiter were signed by our production company HUMMINGBIRD PRODUCTIONS, as was Rocky, as their first artist to produce. Work began in Los Angeles on Rocky’s debut album with further work carried out in our in-house ESSEX STUDIOS located on Poland Street in London’s Soho.  The album featured a couple of notable ‘guests’ including Dave Edmunds (Love Sculpture, Rockpile) and guitarist Billy Burnette (Fleetwood Mac), who is Dorsey Burnette’s son and Rocky’s cousin.

Titled to stamp his heritage to his arrival as an artist, ‘The Son Of Rock’n’Roll’ was licensed to, and released by, EMI America.  The album featured different front sleeves for the British and American markets and spawned the hit “Tired of Toein’ the Line”. Although the single failed penetrate the UK Top 50 at the time, it become a staple eighties Pop classic.  

Rocky recorded a follow up album with Bill and Jim but ironically EMI America released the album ‘Rocky Burnette’ in the Uk and Europe but elected not to release the album in America where Rocky had built up a fanbase based on the back of his hit single and coast to coast touring schedule.  In America the record was licensed to the independent The Goods Records label based in California who released it with a different sleeve and title, ‘Heart Stopper’, but before their promotions could gather momentum the label closed down.  

Rocky Burnette and his father, uncle and cousin are the subjects of the documentary film Raised on Rock: The Burnette Family Legacy
 


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