Rocky Burnette - "Tired of Toein' the Line"

(Debuted May 10, 1980, Peaked #8, 19 Weeks on the Chart)  


Rocky Burnette had rock & roll in his blood. His father Johnny Burnette and uncle Dorsey Burnette were rockabilly artists from Memphis in the 1950s, and his cousin Billy Burnette was also a singer who later replaced Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac. Rocky would follow in his father's footsteps, anticipating a wave of success brought by nostalgia for rockabilly.

Unfortunately, his timing was a little premature. When The Stray Cats ended up riding that rockabilly revival wave in 1982/'83, Burnette had been dropped by his label. As it turned out, he enjoyed one big hit on the U.S. pop charts with "Tired of Toein' the Line." A song about a relationship that's heading south in a big hurry, it made its way into the Top 10 (in fact, its #8 peak matched the high point his father had achieved with "You're Sixteen" in 1960) and would score well in several other countries, where there was a better reception of rockabilly-influenced music. It even reached #1 in Australia.