Some context: Johnny Burnette was born to Willie May and Dorsey Burnett Sr. in Memphis, Tennessee. (The "e" at the end of his name was added later.) Johnny grew up with his parents and Dorsey Jr. in a public housing project in the Lauderdale Courts area of Memphis, which from 1948 until 1954 was also the home of Gladys and Vernon Presley and their son, Elvis.
Now unemployed in Memphis, Burnette decided to try his luck in California. He and a friend, Joe Campbell, hitchhiked to the West Coast, where they joined Dorsey. With their past differences forgotten, the brothers attempted to resurrect the Rock and Roll Trio and sent for Paul Burlison. He joined them briefly but decided to return to Memphis and concentrate on his electrical business. Dorsey and Johnny continued with their songwriting, but Dorsey kept his day job as an electrician to pay the family expenses. The Burnettes' brashness got them their first success in the music business in California. On arriving in Los Angeles, Joe Campbell bought a copy of "A Map to the Stars", which showed the location of the house of the teen idol Ricky Nelson. In an effort to get their songs to him, the Burnettes and Campbell decided to sit on the steps of his house until they could get a meeting with him. Their persistence worked, and Nelson was sufficiently impressed with their work that he eventually recorded several of their songs, including "Believe What You Say", "It's Late", "Waitin' in School", and "Just a Little Too Much", amongst others. Other Imperial Records artists, such as Roy Brown, benefited from their songwriting. The success of his recording of the brothers' "Hip Shakin' Baby" led to a recording contract with Imperial Records as a duo. While in California, they met Doyle Holly, who played bass guitar for a short time with the band. Holly went on to become the bass player for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos and to record as a solo artist. As the Burnette Brothers, they released one single, for Imperial, "Warm Love" backed with "My Honey" (Imperial X5509), on May 5, 1958. It did not make the charts. After this failure, they continued to work together as songwriters but began to follow separate careers as performing artists. In 1961, however, Johnny and Dorsey released two instrumental singles, credited to the Texans, for two small labels, Infinity and Gothic: "Green Grass of Texas" backed with "Bloody River" (Infinity INX-001), released on February 20, 1961, and "Rockin' Johnny Home" backed with "Ole Reb" (Gothic GOX-001), released on May 29, 1961. Another instrumental, "Lonely Island" backed with"Green Hills" (Liberty 55460), credited to the Shamrocks, was released by Liberty Records on June 6, 1962. "Green Grass of Texas" and "Bloody River" were to be re-released in February 1965 on the Vee Jay label (VJ 658), again credited to the Texans.
Were they successful alone?
A:
Some context: "My Happiness" is a song by Australian rock band Powderfinger. It was released on record label Universal Music Australia on 21 August 2000 as the first single from the band's fourth album, Odyssey Number Five. The single is Powderfinger's most successful; it peaked at number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, and charted in the United States on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart--the first Powderfinger song to do so. Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning wrote the lyrics for "My Happiness" as a reflection on the time the band spent touring to promote their work, and the loneliness that came as a result.
"My Happiness" was put on heavy rotation by Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM two months prior to its United States release, and Powderfinger signed a contract with United States label Republic as a result of the song's early success. Beat journalist Jayson Argall joked the song had received "a bit" of airplay. Although "My Happiness" was subsequently dropped from KROQ's roster, other radio stations continued to give the song high priority. "My Happiness" peaked at number 23 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks, making it the first Powderfinger song to appear on a Billboard chart. According to Susan Groves of WHRL, part of the song's success came about because very few people knew of Powderfinger, but were drawn towards "My Happiness" because it was "melodic, [and] pretty"--a change from what she described as "middle of the road rock" popular in the United States. Meanwhile, Australians were "starting to get sick of My Happiness"--Cameron Adams argued in The Hobart Mercury that this was one of the reasons Powderfinger decided to focus on the offshore market. Powderfinger performed "My Happiness" live on the Late Show with David Letterman while touring North America with British rock group Coldplay. They were the fourth Australian act (after The Living End, Silverchair, and Nick Cave) to play on the show. The band also did free promotional shows leading up to the release of the single. In Europe, "My Happiness" received approximately four weeks of airplay on German music video program Viva II, and the band sold out for three nights in a row in London, partly due to the success of the single.
What drew people towards the band's music?
A:
"My Happiness" because it was "melodic, [and] pretty"--a change from what she described as "middle of the road rock" popular in the United States.