From:  "Colin Kilgour" 
Date:  Fri Feb 25, 2005  4:12 pm 
Subject:  This Is My Story : Sonny Burgess


Sonny Burgess – The Arkansas Wild Man

to augment Shaun’s piece from May 28, 2002

Note from Colin Kilgour:
The following article was published in a booklet.  The date is unknown 
and I note the inclusion of NKS and 'Enkay Productions' on the item.

We Wanna Boogie – by Adam Komorowski

SONNY BURGESS was born and bred in Newport, Arkansas, and lives there to
this very day. Perhaps if he had put himself about a bit more, and been
possessed of a burning ambition his career may have risen to dizzier
heights. Conversely he may have experienced some of the personal tragedies
that befell many of the successful Sun stars; Presley, Perkins, Cash and
Lewis all had more than their fair share of problems. And so the name of
Sonny Burgess remains one of those names that is revered by the rockabilly
fraternity, but is unknown to the world at large. Probably the last of the
'Sun Legends' to visit these shores, Burgess was, and still is, a superb
performer, and his British debut et the Weymouth Rock'n'Roll extravaganza in
1984 only served to enhance his reputation. His first love was country
music, but fast country music; Western Swing, Boogie, anything that moved.

Later his musical education was supplemented by a strong interest in R&B,
absorbing the influence of Domino, Big Joe Turner, Smiley Lewis and Jimmy
Reed. The music he recorded at Sun is amongst the wildest and most raucous
cut by any white artist. A man of innate modesty, Sonny expresses no regrets
at what might have been, instead he looks back with fond memories at the fun
it was being a rockabilly singer in that long gone but not forgotten era.

Born into a large farming family in rural Newport, Arkansas on the 28th May
1931, Albert, Burgess soon became known to all and sundry as 'Sonny'. Just
why this was so, he doesn't remember, but perhaps the fact that his father's
name was also Albert called for some means of differentiation. Albert and
Esther Burgess had a small farm in the vicinity of Newport and it was there
that Sonny grew up with his brothers and sisters. In common with many
youngsters from that era, his first guitar came courtesy of Sears Roebuck
mail order catalogue, and it was a Gene Autry model. An elder sister had a
friend who would come visiting, and much to his delight she could play the
guitar a bit, and proved to be a willing teacher. Soon he could pick out a
few basic chords. The family had no gramophone at this time, and Sonny's
musical education was supplemented by tuning in to the sounds of WSM's Grand
Ole Opry on a Saturday night. In particular the music of Moon Mullican and
Ernest Tubb caught his youthful ear.

World War I1 came and went without too great an impact on rural Arkansas, as
the teenaged Burgess completed his schooling. Whilst still at High School he
became a member of a country band which was headed up by a small singer,
Paul Wayley, who sang just like Hank Thompson and included Sonny on guitar,
Johnny Ray Hubbard on bass, Gerald Jackson on drums and the Kennedy twins on
piano (Kern would play the bass end whilst his brother would tinkle the
ivories at the other end). Sonny graduated from High School in 1948 and
started backing a local singer by the name of Fred Waner along with Hubbard
and Jackson. They got themselves a morning spot on local radio between
6.30 - 7.00 a.m. playing country music.  They played movie theatres and
other local dates, and as most of these venues did not possess a piano,
neither of the Kennedy brothers featured in their line-up.

The start of the 50s saw the United States engaged in bitter hostilities
fighting the communist forces of North Korea, and when Sonny found himself
called up for National Service, he was more than a mite relieved to find
himself posted with the US Army in Germany instead of getting 'mashed' on
the inhospitable battle terrain of Eastern Asia. Instead he found himself in
Heidelberg, an instructor with the Military Police. His company was split up
into several platoons that were then posted to various other cities like
Mainz, Worms and Barnholder. Sonny’s duties would include travelling around
to these various platoons for instruction sessions, but more often than not
it merely resulted in him having a quiet snooze in some corner!  Thus
obviously his military duties were not overly strenuous and this left
adequate time for him to pursue his musical interests within the military
framework. He became guitarist with a band formed by a couple of Texan
brothers by the name of Cook (Sonny cannot recall their Christian names
anymore) and fronted by a long: tall Texan who was a dead ringer for
Hawkshaw Hawkins. They auditioned for the USEURAC Grand Ole Opry, and were
one of the lucky eight bands to be successful. The Opry was attended by
large numbers of locals who would come in and listen to the country music on
offer. Despite the occasional trip to a border town, Sonny never actually
set foot in any of the neighbouring European countries, and eventually
received his discharge in 1953.

Back home in Arkansas, Sonny got himself a job in a box factory, and looked
around at the musical situation; Fred Waner had left for California
(following Paul Wayley's example) and became Freddie Hart, chalking up hits
on Columbia, Kapp and Capitol from the late 50s onwards. Sonny re-united
with piano man Kern Kennedy and bass player Johnny Ray Hubbard and took on
board another Newport local, Russ Smith on drums. Collectively they called
themselves the Moonlighters and played local clubs like Bob King's. The guys
would often meet up at Johnny Ray's place; there was a 14-year-old youngster
who lived nearby, and even though he was only in his early teens he was
already 6'-2". He would come round with a mandolin and play along with Sonny
and the group. Sonny had started singing when Paul Wayley had gone back to
California, as none of the others in the band at the time could sing. By the
time of the Moonlighters, Sonny was the lead singer. With Joe Lewis, the 14
year-old mandolin tottin' youngster joining the group in late '55, it gave
them another option for he could sing too. The Moonlighters' repertoire was
firmly rooted in fast country music, boogie, western Swing, anything that
bounced along, as Lot instance Moon Mullican's ‘Pipeliner’. With the advent
on the Memphis scene of Elvis Presley, they started featuring some of his
numbers in their act as well. Eventually in October 1955, the 24th to be
precise, they were booked to open the Show at the Silver Moon Club in
Newport, and following them on the bill was the man himself, Elvis Presley.
Naturally they cut out his numbers from their act, and in a successful
effort to add greater punch to their performance, they hired another local
musician, Punky Coldwell to join them on sax.

Punky was something of a rarity in those days, being a white musician
(clarinet and sax were his instruments), who fronted a group of  four black
musicians. A pretty unusual situation in those days of segregation in the
deep South. And yet he and his band were totally accepted by the locals
playing their staple diet of pop and jazz at Mike's Club on Highway 67.
Punky was booked again to appear with the Moonlighters the following month
When they appeared at Bob King's Club, this time opening the show for Cash, who 
in turn was followed by Presley at about 9.30 in the evening.

It was perhaps these two dates, opening the show for Presley, that
stimulated the thought that perhaps the boys could follow in Presley's
footsteps. Certainly Sonny cannot remember why or even who suggested the
idea, and maybe it just happened anyway, but with Joe Lewis joining Sonny
and the boys, the group was further augmented by Jack Nance who had just
majored from school in music and had played drums some with Lewis. Like some
animal shedding its winter coat, the Moonlighters dropped their country
image, grew in strength and with the dawn of 1956 emerged as the Pacers.
Having got the group together and established something of a local
reputation, the next step was to get onto records. The obvious target was
Sun Records, even though it was some 80 miles away in Memphis; that was the
record company that attracted any rocker worth his salt in the Arkansas,
Mississippi, Tennessee area.

The boys had a friend who was manager at the local radio station KNBY, and
thanks to him they were able to rehearse a couple of numbers they had
written at the station. They then tried it out on live dates and the numbers
went over well. Confident that they had something to offer they set out for
Memphis and Sam Phillips. They played him the two numbers live, and he was
sufficiently impressed to set the tapes rolling and cut them on the two
numbers under his own personal supervision on that May day in 1956. Having
previously rehearsed Red Headed Woman and We Wanna Boogie it only took two
or three takes to get the numbers cut. The top side opens to a pounding
piano and a quick blast front Jack Nance on the trumpet (Nance although a
drummer played trumpet with the Pacers leaving Russ Smith, the man in
residence - to pound the skins). Both sides are taken at a frantic pace that
pay scant attention to melody, but whip up an instant frenzied atmosphere
and most importantly have a superb dance rhythm that invalidates any
criticism of them being off-key and out of tune. This is all the more
surprising in view of the fact that these were the only two numbers that
Sonny and the Pacers ever rehearsed prior to recording.

The boys returned to the studios for another session before the release of
their first record Red Headed Woman/We Wanna Boogie (Sun 247) in June or
July (the single was not released until August), and once again Sam Phillips
took personal charge. The release of their new single made front page news
in the Newport Daily independent, which reported that although the disc was
due for release the following day, local radio station KNBY had gotten hold
of an advance copy, and had been featuring it heavily the previous day.
Gerald Grojean, now cited as the group's business manager, revealed that the
group had signed a two year contract with Sun that stipulated the recording
of a minimum of 16 titles during that period. The record sold reasonably
well, eventually selling some 90,000 copies. Soon the band were off on a
tour of the mid-West, starting out in Batesville and returning home for the
Jackson County Fair. Despite the record selling welt, Sun were basically a
six or seven state company; when records started selling further afield,
either Sam was unaware of the fact or more probably, he did not have the
resources to cope with it. This indeed was the case with Red Headed Woman;
some years later when Jack Nance was touring with Conway Twitty in Boston,
Mass ., he discovered that the song had been a number one hit in the area.
Sonny and the boys hardly knew where Boston was, let alone the fact that
they had had a number one in this conservative town, and had never been
anywhere near the area to promote their product. One of the reasons for
their home orientated performances Jay with their manager Gerald Grojean,
who - married with a good job at the radio station in Newport - was not keen
on travelling and consequently didn't book the boys out too far afield.
Sonny, decided to go and see Bob Neal, without telling Grojean about it, and
explained that they would like Neal's agency to look after their bookings.
Neal told him that he would put him out on the road with Presley, opening
the show thus giving him invaluable experience and useful exposure. Sonny
went home well satisfied, but was puzzled to find that Neal never came back
to him. After about a year it transpired that one member of the band, and
Sonny still doesn't know which one it was, happened to tell Grojean about
the visit to Bob Neal. Grojean immediately got on the phone to Neal and
bawled him out threatening all sorts of action. Neal, who could do without
all that sort of hassle decided to forget all about Sonny Burgess and the
Pacers. By the time the full story came out, Neal was no longer handling
Presley, and although he took the boys on it was Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison
that he packaged them with.

Of all the acts on Sun, Burgess and the Pacers were one of the premier
touring outfits. Since they all came from the Newport area which was, and
still indeed is, some eighty miles from Memphis, their visits to the studios
on 706 Union were not as frequent as those of many of the more local acts.
Thus sadly for posterity they did not record as much material as they might
have done; visits to the studios were arranged specifically for recording
dates. The one thing that Burgess regrets is that the primitive recording
equipment of the time was unable to fully capture the excitement generated
by them live on stage. The fact that they had such a large line-up meant
that they could put on a good visual show with the six of them on stage, as
well as creating a very full sound. The band found themselves closely
associated with Roy Orbison. After recording Ooby Dooby in the spring of
1956, Roy split with his band the Teen Kings and Sonny and the Pacers took
over as his backing group on the road, playing countless dates with him.

Of the many stories surrounding the myth of the Pacers' wild stage act,
perhaps the best known one is that of Sonny appearing on stage, resplendent
in a red suit, red shoes, red socks, with hair dyed to match and sporting a
red Fender guitar. The truth of the matter is far more mundane than the
legend. Burgess, who admired the silver hair of his favourite TV detective,
decided that his appearance would be enhanced if he could bleach his hair
silver, reckoning that the combination of silver hair and jet black eyebrows
would certainly give him a novel appearance on stage. To his horror the
peroxide turned his hair bright red! And as he was just about to set off on
a tour of the West, there was nought he could do about it but grin and bear
it, and wait the couple of months it would take for the dyed hair to grow
out. Sonny readily admits to the red suit, the red shoes and even the red
Fender, but he draws a sartorial line at the socks, they in fact were black.
It was a date in Albuquerque that cemented the legend. Johnny Cash and his
band flew out on ahead, as was their wont, whilst the supporting acts made
their way by road. En route Sonny's car broke down, and as a result Sonny
and the Pacers along with Roy Orbison arrived in total disarray. The show
was an unmitigated disaster with the band not really knowing what they were
doing, and even Sonny's red ensemble failed to save the show. It was then
that Orbison coined the immortal phrase; "Man they'll always remember us in
Albuquerque as the Wink Wildcat and the Red Clown". The red suit was only
one of several that Sonny used on stage, and indeed it was only occasionally
used, the prime contender for the sartorially aware rock'n'roller was a pink
suit, black shirt and white tie, and indeed this was Sonny's usual stage
gear. It was popularised by Elvis who of course got the idea from the local
black population. It all proved very good business for Lansky Bros in
Memphis who kitted out most of the Sun acts with their colourful outfits.
The Pacers however went in for white suits and black ties which they bought
at J.C.Penny's.

When the band returned for their third session at the Sun Studios, they
found that Sam had handed over the production reins to Jack Clement. He
asked them if they had any material prepared and they answered "nope". He
handed them some lyrics entitled Restless and they worked up a tune around
them, invented a guitar lick or two and Sonny kinda got the urge to whistle
along to part of the song, and before they knew where they were they had a
new single in the can. Not that they received any composer credits for the
song, that all went to one M.C.Addington. It was probably at that same
session that they cut a version of According To My Heart (which has so far
eluded all searches of the Sun vaults), which came off so well that Jack
Nance went along to Sam Phillips with it to draw his attention to it.

He suggested to Sam that it would make an excellent single. Sam liked it but
when he discovered that Jim Reeves had had a hit with it on RCA (6620), it
charted on the 24th October '56 and just made it into the top ten, he
decided against putting it out. Sonny also recalls cutting a very good r&b
number, the title of which eludes him, but it is certainly one that hasn't
been issued so far. It is of course possible that these two numbers were
amongst the tapes that were re-used at Sun in 1957 when a whole load of
unissued material was consigned to oblivion in this manner. Coupled with
Ain't Got A Thing, Restless was issued on Sun 263. It started selling like
hot cakes, better even than Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes; this was the one
song that Sonny really believed would be a smash, and then inexplicably it
just died away. This was a not uncommon failing at Sun Records, and was
allied to the problems of a small independent company running into problems
with distributors, and not helped by Sam's notorious tightness with money.
In the end it was just such frustrations that drove away many of Sun's best
artists into the hands of other record companies where few of them managed
to recapture anything like the magic that was conjured up on the Sun vinyl.

Another problem that beset Sonny at Sun was that his diversified musical
tastes, ranging from country to r&b, meant that they never quite knew which
market to aim his product at. Jack Clement summed it up when he stated with
a certain amount of regret that, "Burgess just didn't fit into a groove that
we could sell records with". Sonny cut a number of r&b sides most of which
remained in the vaults until Sun was reactivated by Shelby Singleton. Feel
So Good, One Night ("we did it with Smiley Lewis' original lyrics, not the
Presley version"), So Glad You're Mine (Oo Wee) - two takes of this song
have been found and the second one is titled Oo Wee (So Glad You're Mine)!,
Fannie Brown (incorrectly titled as Sally Brown on the Charly album "The
Legendary Sun Performers" CR 30136) are all excellent examples of Sonny and
the Pacers in an r&b vein and yet none of them were issued by Sam. In
January 1957 the boys cut a session four tracks which have only just been
found and are due for release on Charly's Sun series. Wings Of An Angel is
the old prisoners' song that is given a raving gospel treatment by Sonny and
the band. Interestingly enough there are two versions of the song, a slow
one and a fast one. As all the studio sessions were spontaneous affairs
(apart from their first one), there was a tendency to try out songs at
differing tempos to find out how best to sing them, which accounts for this
phenomenon occurring with a number of artists other than just Sonny. 
Two
further tracks, Life's Too Short & All Nite Long are the sole surviving
example of guitarist Joe Lewis taking on the vocal duties, something he did
quite often on stage. As with many of Sonny's tracks the numbers sound as if
they had been recorded in complete chaos, and yet generate enough
electricity to light up the stars.

Shortly after the release of Red Headed Woman, the Newport Daily Independent
ran a feature on the Pacers under the heading THEY GET 'CARRIED AWAY', which
gives some idea of the antics that the boys got up to:

"We just sorta get carried away".

That's the way one of the Pacers describes the bandstand style which has
made the Newport rock and roll group a screaming success among young folk.
When the Pacers get "carried away" their audience generally gets that way
too – and probably more so.

Like for instance, the night the Pacers were playing a dance not far from
here. Big 17 year-old Joe Lewis had the mike and was giving his usual
enthusiastic song delivery, planting his adequate feet on the platform and
writhing for emphasis. Some ecstatic teenage girls stormed the platform -
they got so carried away they attempted to carry Joe away. Joe escaped, but
not before they yanked off his flashy pink jacket.

Then there was the rock-and-roll jamboree when they played two concerts to a
packed movie house in Newport. The number 1 Pacer, Sonny Burgess, really got
carried away; he jumped away up in the air, and when he came down - on the
front row of seats, which fortunately were not occupied - he still had the
microphone and the guitar and had not missed a single beat. The crowd of
youngsters went wild. The wildest individual present at that moment,
however, was one Kern Kennedy, who plays really fine piano for the Pacers.
The reason: when Sonny jumped, the microphone cord encircled Kern's neck,
and he nearly choked.

It is some sort of tribute, perhaps, to note that Kennedy, though deprived
of the use of his breathing apparatus, didn't miss a lick on the ivory keys.

The six-member organisation had its beginnings last January and since then
has become popular, supremely popular with the youngsters in the vicinity.
Now they've begun to widen their horizons. They took their first big step in
the direction of the "big time" when their first commercial record was
released by Sun Record Co of Memphis - the company that gave Elvis Presley
his start.

Now they're getting ready to go on a two week tour of the Mid-West. They'll
leave Friday stopping for a show in Batesville and then going on to
Fayetteville and several engagements at Commonwealth theaters in Missouri
and other Mid-West states.

Their record is going great guns, not only locally but in several parts of
the country. In Flint, Mich., it is one of the top 40 records on juke boxes
and in record shops. It's selling well in other widely separated points such
as Tupelo, Miss., Fort Smith, Ark., and Alexandria, La., according to
reports from former Newport residents in those places.

Just how many records have been sold hasn't been reported yet by Sun Record
Co. A reasonable estimate would seem to be in the vicinity of 4000 or 5000.

The group made their TV debut on Steve Stevens' Dance Party on Channel 11 in
Newport. This was a relatively local affair. Sonny had been to school with
Stevens, and so as soon as he started making a name for himself it was only
natural that Stevens should invite him on his show. Their first major TV
appearance was on Wink Martindale's Dance Party on Channel 13 out of Memphis
which featured many of the popular artists in the area such as Eddie Bond,
Johnny Cash and so on. Even though it was only regional TV, this sort of
exposure helped immensely, for "everybody wants to see a TV star", as Sonny
remarked.

Yes, it was certainly fun playing rockabilly in the fifties; "we did all
sorts of crazy things. Johnny Ray would lay on the bass and Jack Nance would
climb on top and I'd pull it around the stage". Johnny Ray bought himself an
electric bass, but then found he had no idea how to play it, so on a number
of gigs they utilised two basses with Johnny Ray playing the upright bass
and Joe Lewis on the electric Fender bass. And recording was fun; "Sam just
sat in the booth and said, 'play' - it was like playing live to one man. He
had a great personality, a good lookin' guy, but he couldn't play anything
himself, although he wanted to be a musician. But he had an ear for music.
If he liked it and thought it was good, then that was it. Guess there ain't
been nobody quite like him since.

After a year without any hits and still confined to a relatively local
circuit, the group started getting restless. And so based on the fact that
they were unmarried and so would be more able and willing to travel, Sonny
released Joe Lewis to join Conway Twitty's band and Russ Smith went off to
drum for Jerry Lee. It was a pretty rotten theory as Sonny now admits, but
at the time it made sense. With this move, Jack Nance gave up playing
trumpet and took over on drums and guitarist J.C.Caughran joined the band.
It was around this time that Sonny re-established contact with Bob Neal and
the band started regular tours of California, usually opening the show for
Johnny Cash. They also played numerous dates with the Collins Kids and
backed them on tour as well as appearing on 'Town Hall Party'. Sonny
acknowledges that the Collins Kids and Elvis were the two acts they could
not top, otherwise artists had to be on their guard, for Sonny and the
Pacers were liable to put on quite a show. Amongst the other artists they
played with in California were Don Gibson, Wally Lewis, Don Deal, Danny &
the Juniors.

In that same year Sonny married a local girl, Jo Ann Adams and today they
have two grown sons. It was Jo Ann who inadvertently helped Sonny acquire
his red hair when the bleaching idea went astray. After all their touring
together Roy Orbison and Sonny returned to the studios for further recording
sessions in August '57. They cut several numbers including My Bucket's Got A
Hole In It onto which Jack Clement overdubbed his Gibson Hummingbird guitar.
A previously unissued take that sounds like one of the earlier attempts at
the song has recently appeared on Sun 1027. Cut on the same day was Find My
Baby For Me, which Sonny confirms has Roy Orbison on background vocals. Roy
was to record Chicken Hearted/I Like Love (Sun 284) as well as several
unissued sides the day following Sonny's session (August 15th). However
Sonny and the boys did not reciprocate by backing Roy on that session as
they had headed on home after finishing theirs. For some reason Sonny's
single wasn't released until the following December. It seems likely that
live performances of the number in California came to the attention of Ricky
Nelson (or his management), for Ricky promptly went and recorded it on
Imperial in January 1958 and coupled with Believe What You Say (Imperial
5503) it reached a healthy number eighteen slot in March of that year. Sadly
for Sonny it was not even one of his own compositions (being written by jazz
pianist Clarence Williams, although it would have been Hank Williams'
version - MGM 10560 - that would undoubtedly have brought the song to
Sonny's notice). This session virtually heralded the end of Sonny Burgess
and the Pacers on Sun Records; there may possibly have been another session
recorded as titles like Little Town Baby, I Love You So, Oochie Smoochie
were recorded sometime in '57, but no definite dates have survived in the
files and personal memories are now faded over the years.

At any event Jack Nance departed to join Conway Twitty and the following
year was to co-write the worldwide smash hit It's Only Make Believe (MGM
12748), as well as a number of other hits, and stayed with Twitty until the
end of his rock'n'roll days. It was at this point that Bobby Crafford came
into the band as their drummer, and toured extensively with the Pacers, but
to the best of Sonny's recollections never actually played on a session with
them at Sun. Nance's departure was actually caused by another Sun artist,
namely Billy Lee Riley; both Twitty and Riley were playing up in Canada when
Twitty's band fell out with him over money, Riley offered them another $25 a
week and they became his band, so Joe Lewis who had stuck with Twitty (and
still plays with Twitty today, often doing back-up vocals on his recordings)
was sent back home to find a new band. Nance was one of his recruits.

So now the Pacers consisted of Caughran on guitar, Hubbard on bass, Kennedy
on piano and Crafford on drums. Their failure to land a hit on Sun, and
indeed the paucity of their releases, not to mention less than generous
royalties for what they had sold, meant that Sonny was on the lookout for
another label, particularly as their two year contract was nearing
termination. Whilst out on tour in California, Bob Neal arranged for them to
audition for Challenge Records, and, under the jurisdiction of Johnny Bond
they spent a whole day trying to come up with some numbers to impress the
record company with. What they actually recorded eludes Sonny's memory, but
he feels that tapes may still be lying around somewhere of their efforts on
that day, the only question is, where? Also around the same time they cut
some sides at Wynn Stewart's Studios in California but once again nothing
came of these recordings. It was in many ways a paradox that whilst the live
sounds of the Sun artists were enthusiastically received by the Californian
populace, none of the local recording companies seemed interested in
recording that wild sort of sound; a great shame for Sonny and the Pacers
were certainly up for grabs recording wise at this point in time.

By the end of 1957 the contract with Sun had expired and the group cut some
sides at Conway Twitty's studio in Maryanna, Arkansas which they had made up
into a promo acetate but it failed to evoke much interest. They also
recorded some sides at Wayne Rainey's Rimrock Studio in Concord, Arkansas
probably around the early part of '59. Sonny and one of his early bands had
backed Wayne Rainey and Lonnie Glosson back in the early fifties when they
had played at the Strand Theater in Newport in a show sponsored by Hadacol.
This was in the days when Sonny was playing with Fred Waner, who was also on
the bill, and they were all given Hadacol T shirts to wear for the occasion!

Sonny himself returned to the Sun Studios a couple of times; the first
occasion was in August '58 when along with J.C.Caughran and Johnny Ray
Hubbard from the Pacers, Sonny, on guitar was joined by Billy Lee Riley on
harmonica, Jimmy Van Eaton on drums and a pianist. Sonny is pretty certain
that it was Charlie Rich, Billy Lee seems to think that it was Jimmy Wilson,
however Sonny sticks to his guns pointing out that "Jimmy Wilson didn't play
that good:" The topside (the fast side) was named after a local brand of
wine that could, and often was, purchased at the cafe next door. Coupled
with the slower ‘Itchy’ the two sides were issued on Sun 304 but failed to
sell in any quantity despite being much sought after in later years by
collectors of the label. It is worth noting that the two sides got
transposed on the album Tough Stuff (Charly CR 30186) and it is the slower
bluesy side that is in fact Itchy.

No doubt due to his extensive touring commitments and the fact that he lived
well out of town, meant that unlike many other Sun musicians, Sonny did not
back any of the other artists on the label. Indeed the only two artists for
whom he played guitar on record were another couple of Arkansas favourites,
Bobby Lee Trammell and Teddy Redell. Sonny is to be heard on Trammell's Hi
Ho Silver/Been A Walking (Vaden 304) which was recorded at the Hi Studios in
Memphis in 1959 with Ace Cannon on sax. The Redell record was cut at radio
station KLCN in Blythesville, although Redell himself was from Heber
Springs. The record Knocking On The Backside was issued on Vaden 110.

With the bulk of 1957 and 1958 spent on the road by Sonny and the Pacers,
the year 1959 effectively brought to an end Sonny's association with the
Pacers and also his days at Sun Records. There was however to be one last
fling and with an assorted gaggle of musicians, the first time Sonny had
recorded without the Pacers apart from the instrumental jam session with
Riley and in June '59 Sonny cut Sadie's Back In Town. Backed by A Kiss
Goodnite it was issued on the new Sun subsidiary label Phillips
International 3551 six months later in December. It was also the only one of
Sonny's recordings to be issued in the U.K, being released on London
American HLS 9064 in February 1960. It came as a breath of fresh air on a
rock'n'roll scene that was rapidly melting into pop and introduced Sonny to
British record collectors way ahead of other Sun contemporaries such as
Warren Smith, Billy Lee Riley, Ray Smith and Charlie Feathers who were only
introduced to the UK some years later on import singles. The drums were
played by Raymond Thompson who also does the Woody Woodpecker voice whilst
Sonny provides the laugh.

Contrary to the published information Sonny is certain that it is not Ed
Thomas on piano but a young Canadian kid whose name is now a mystery. It was
also around this time that the Pacers split up and reformed under Bobby
Crafford whilst a few months later Sonny went off to join former colleagues
Jack Nance and Joe Lewis playing for Conway Twitty.

Twitty was now becoming a big name and Sonny joined initially playing
guitar; the band featured twin guitars with both Joe Lewis and Sonny on the
instrument. The versatile Jack Nance had by this time switched to piano as
the drum kit had been taken over by Porkchop Markham (it is ironic to
reflect that at a Jerry Lee Lewis concert in Dartford England on Easter
Monday 1985, Porkchop came on and played piano on Whole Lotta Shakin' whilst
Jerry Lee sang, with Sonny in the audience!). Later Sonny switched to
playing the electric bass. At one point because of pressing commitments
elsewhere Sonny found himself performing as Joe Friday along with the
Twittybirds in place of Conway. He particularly recalls a club in Hamilton,
Ontario that they played where his renditions of He'll Have To Go and
Running Bear, which was also turned into something of a visual spectacle,
went over exceptionally well. Twitty had the whole band in tuxedos with
sequinned shirts and vest, and had them made in white, red, blue and black
so as to be able to ring the changes in appearance. Whilst he continued
touring with Conway until 1961, Sonny never played on any of his sessions,
indeed few of the touring band did, most of the lead guitar work on the MGM
recordings being done by Hank Garland.

Bobby Crafford meantime had cut a session for Sun in November 1960 along
with Pacers Kern Kennedy and J.C.Caughran, but the four sides cut were never
issued. Apart from Be Mine, Ruby Baby and You Are My Sunshine they recorded
Joanne - a tribute to Sonny's wife?

Also cutting a subsequently unissued session at the same time was Teddy
Redell who recorded Me & My Blues and Step, the former appearing eventually
on 'Tennessee Country" - Charly CR 30150. Backing on these tracks being
provided by Crafford and Caughran as well as Roland Janes.

Upon quitting Twitty's band, which was effectively disbanding as Twitty
started to give up on rock'n'roll, Sonny teamed up with Larry Donn who
hailed from North East Arkansas. Larry had started out in rock'n'roll in
1957 and had already cut one quite successful record in Honeybun and had his
own small band that included drummer Tommy Timms and bass player Skeeter
Grady. Sonny came in as a vocalist/guitarist and the band played dates
locally. Donn obtained a daytime job as a disc jockey in Jonesboro, Arkansas
and it was there that Donn and Burgess cut their recordings. A single was
issued on the Ad-bur label (Ad from Adams - Sonny's wife's maiden name and
'bur' from Burgess). One side featured Larry Donn on vocal with Sonny on
guitar whilst the other side Today featured Sonny as the singer. Donn's side
was a cover of the Presley platter Girl Next Door, a powerful rocking
version with Sonny's guitar work well in prominence.

An album issued on the Dutch White Label (LP 8817) features a whole side of
Larry Donn's recordings all previously unissued Presley Sun titles apart
from the single Honeybun. The other side covers the Larry Donn/Sonny Burgess
period and includes Girl Next Door, but somewhat surprisingly not Today.
However to compensate for this there are some hitherto unissued sides such
as Sonny vocalising on Brown Eyed Handsome Man and three instrumental sides,
Kentucky Home Rock; All Night Stomp and Sunshine Rock that showcase Sonny's
guitar playing. This association lasted relatively briefly for with his work
at the radio station Larry was only able to work part time as a performer,
and indeed went on to become station manager before graduating to production
supervisor at a local TV station. His love of the music profession saw him
return to the performing side of the business after a number of years and he
played with the reknowned Mar-keys for a while, and is still performing live
to this day.

Sonny in the meantime also decided that the music business was no longer
going to provide him with a full-time living and started work at his
brother-in-law's sports shop. However he decided not to totally abandon
performing and formed a new group of Pacers which he quickly renamed Kings
IV after Bob King's club in Newport where he had played so often. Skeeter
Grady, "a handsome blue-eyed boy, he was the one that the girls went for",
Tommy Timms, saxman Gene Grant and his old friend Kern Kennedy made up the
new line up and were subsequently augmented by organist Bobby Nelson. When
Grady got called up for national service he was replaced in the group by
Doug Greeno.

Bobby Crafford who had retained the original Pacers name had become heavily
involved with Razorback Records with a view to putting out product by the
Pacers. They had previously had a single out on Vaden with Crafford taking
over vocal duties. However he decided that it would be best to have a set up
under his own control for the purpose of merchandising their product, and so
Razorback Records, named after the famous Arkansas pigs, came into
existence. Whilst basically a small independent label, Crafford soon found
himself recording more than just the Pacers. The first release was by
Crafford & the Pacers - Odessa/My Baby Done Quit Me but thereafter other
local names like Tommy Roco, Jimmy Luke, Teddy Redell, Merlin Ree, Jim
Aldridge and Rick Durham started appearing on the company's releases. Their
seventeenth release (Razorback 117) was by Sonny Burgess & Kings IV. Willie
And The Hand Jive/Lawdy Miss Clawdy recorded in 1964 paid scant regard for
current pop trends and instead showed Burgess and the band in a hard driving
mood that would have been a credit to the fifties recordings of many other
artists.

Indeed Sonny made no pretence to change with the times, apart from the
sartorial splendour of their collarless jackets, he and Kings IV played the
sort of tough rocking music that had been the backbone of his act those past
ten years or so. In all they cut four singles on the label, the last of
which, a re-recording of Restless coupled with Don't Let Me Hang Around,
featured the renamed Kings V (Bobby Nelson having joined the group). These
four singles are as good as any recorded by a fifties rocker during the
ensuing decade. Crafford in the meantime had also revived Red Headed Woman
with the Pacers (114). School Days, Mary Lou, and Restless are currently
available on Razorback Rock'n'Roll (R&C 1018), whilst Fraulein and Odessa
appeared on the now deleted French album This Is Razorback Records (Splendid
SLP 103).

Sonny and Kings V had established themselves on a local TV show and in 1966
Sonny cut a promo disc, a four track EP entitled The Sonny Burgess Show
which highlighted a different member of the group on each track. Cut at
Roland Janes' Sonic Studios in Memphis, Sonny had hopes that their
appearances on TV would sell the record, however in that hope he was
disappointed. Between 66-68 Sonny cut a number of tracks at Roland Janes'
studios and two singles, one on Ara and one on Rolando duly saw the light of
day, both records being in a country vein. Janes has recently found a stack
of tapes cut by Sonny and other fifties favourites, and the intention is to
sort through them to find out if there is anything suitable for release.
However the precise details of what is there at the moment is unknown. After
these forays at Sonic, Sonny effectively gave up performing on a
professional basis and obtained a job with a St Louis company as a rep for
whom he worked for for fifteen years.

In 1976 Sonny made a fleeting return to the recording studios, and instantly
regretted his decision when he discovered that the echo machine had broken
down. The occasion was organised by Michel Cattin whose Swiss Lake County
record label specialised in recording favourites from the fifties. It was of
course a very low budget affair, and the facilities at the Studio Musad in
Little Rock were far from ideal. However Cattin collected up a number of the
Pacers including Bobby Crafford, Kern Kennedy, Johnny Ray Hubbard, J.C. 
Caughran and Fred Douglas (who played bass in Crafford's Pacers) as well
as Paul Allen who guested on tenor sax.

Basically there's nothing wrong with the music laid down by these
reconstituted Pacers, however the lack of echo on Sonny's voice and adequate
production (all twelve numbers were cut in a day), leaves this as a fairly
average sort of album, instead of the excellent one it could have been. The
album was leased to Charly Records and was issued as The Old Gang (CRM 2025)
with sleeve notes written by one Adam Komorowski. If the recording session
was not quite what it might have been, then certainly the same may be said
of the sleeve notes; first of all I consigned Bobby Crafford to a premature
death, in fact he is still alive and kicking in Arkansas, then Jack Nance
was incorrectly credited with being the guitarist in the Pacers (mind you
being the versatile sort of bloke he was I dare say that would have been
possible!). Finally the bold statement, based on a Martin Hawkins interview
back in '73, to the effect that a rockabilly comeback for Sonny was not on
the cards was totally shattered when Sonny turned up for the Weymouth
Festival in 1984 and the Birmingham Festival in 1985.

Certainly Sonny was one of the last of the Sun rockabillies to succumb to
the temptation to recall an earlier musical career for the benefit of
European audiences. His earlier protestations that he'd hate to be playing
to people and yet know that he wasn't as good as he once used to be,
certainly hold water for if anything, modesty is one of his failings. Allied
too to the fact that he was in a good job that involved a lot of travelling
and thus made a trip to Europe at a specific time a difficult item to
organise. Two things conspired to change Sonny's mind; first of all the
arrival on the British rock'n'roll promotion scene of Willie Jeffery (far
better known as Wild Willie - longtime admirer and friend of Ronnie
Hawkins), who with Hawkins' intercession (himself an Arkansas native)
persuaded Sonny that British audiences really were keen to see him even if
he had aged a bit since the fifties. Secondly Sonny made friends with an
English couple Barry and Lee John who furnished Sonny with proof of the
European interest in rockabilly with copies of his and other artists
re-issues on Charly, Ace and other specialist labels. And suddenly it all
fell into place and Sonny along with Gary Grady (cousin of Skeeter Grady
former Kings IV bassist), who plays bass for Sonny nowadays when they play
locally around Newport, duly turned up in England.

Certainly nobody who attended the Weymouth Festival was disappointed.
Sonny's vibrant voice had lost none of its punch and his guitar work was a
joy to behold. Amongst the numbers he performed was Only You, a number that
he saw Elvis perform live on stage several times in his Sun days. Sonny
attempted to remain as faithful as memory would allow to the Presley
interpretation. Since Harbour Lights (another Platters' platter), turned up
a few years ago amongst the unissued Sun tapes, is there any hope that Only
You may some day turn up in like manner? As a result of Sonny's visit, the
so called 'flood tapes' have been issued on the Swedish Sunrock label. With
the amount of time he spent on the road, Sonny left a lot of his belongings
at his mother's house just outside Newport. For the first time in living
memory there were floods, and as a result Sonny had to move her belongings
out. Amongst the things he moved was an old trunk full of his old belongings
and amongst them an undated tape, hence the flood tapes!

With Sonny's return to the UK in 1985, a recording session was organised by
Barry and Lee who entrusted the role of producer to Dave Travis, whose work
with Buddy Knox, Eddie Bond, Joe Poovey and Johnny Carroll makes him the
most experienced rockabilly producer in Britain. For a solid week before
Easter Sonny put in an all-day stint at the small recording studio in
London's North End Road. Visitors were not encouraged - Sonny was there to
work, not to be disturbed. With Dave Taylor adding his strident piano work,
the project turned out very successfully and will doubtless be out on some
label by the time many of you are reading this, although which label is not
known at the time of writing. It is however an album well worth getting, for
Sonny has a few surprises in store. There is a mixture of original material,
some of it stemming from the pen of the Richmond, (London not Virginia)
brewmaster; Everybody's Movin' Again was originally inspired by the Glen
Glenn song, whilst Spellbound has never been previously recorded. There are
some Burgess originals as well as his own treatment of several better known
numbers like Elvis' I'm Counting On You, the Hank Williams bopper Move It On
Over as well as Raw Deal and Midnight Special. Never really satisfied with
the Sun cut of Mr Blues, Sonny has given this number the full treatment
again. All in all it is a varied and fascinating collection that will surely
lead to a resumption maybe on a regular basis of Sonny's recording career.

What of the rest of the Pacers? Well, apart from Russ Smith whose
whereabouts are unknown (although his mother still lives in Newport), and
Joe Lewis who was tragically killed in a car crash near Nashville in 1976,
the rest are all alive and well. Bobby Crafford still lives in Little Rock,
Arkansas, working for a record distributor. Jack Nance, after his
phenomenally successfully writing partnership with Twitty, is still in the
music business, most recently organising Michael Jackson's world tour. Kern
and Johnny Ray are both gainfully employed outside the music business, but
every now and then when they are all back in Newport at the same time,
you'll find them down at the Silver Moon playing just for the fun of it.
Sonny's European trips have rekindled his passion for music, and not only
has he dug out tapes and acetates from the 50's and 60's, but is avidly
recording demos on his home studio equipment.  So quite possibly there is
still a further chapter in the Sonny Burgess Story still to be told!

by Adam Komorowski

‘converted’ for SAO by Colin Kilgour Feb. 2005