Too much

[colonel snow]

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colonel snow

[Mister Moon]

Interesting stuff, colonel.

Do you have the rest of the pages from that document too ?

Here's a better view of the sleeve for Elvis' cover of "Too Much", as well as labels for the Japanese (78) and Australian (45) issues :

47-6800.jpg

78 Jap.jpg

45 Aus.jpg

[colonel snow]

Deleted due to doubts about the information


colonel snow

[Mister Moon]

No, I don't have more pages from that lawsuit; I've added the original label and more to this topic to show what's about it.
The 45 rpm cover originates from the lawsuit.

Never mind, thank you all the same.

The Elvis sleeve you posted is cooler than mine. And it's nice to know it's the one used for the lawsuit.

I just happened to have those three images at hand and thought I would add them to the topic.

[Mister Moon]

How the Lawyers Turned "Too Much" Into Nothing At All

By Rob Grayson

Would you say this band knows nothing about playing country music? The 20th Century Fox movie moguls did, and excluded Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana from backing Elvis Presley on the songs for his first movie, Love Me Tender. But the Blue Moon Boys were welcomed with open arms for the September 1st, 1956 RCA recording session that fleshed out the second Elvis album, and next number one single. The Hollywood sessions were productive. Presley's second album, titled Elvis, featured songs from the writers who provided Don't Be Cruel and Hound Dog, Otis Blackwell and Leiber and Stoller. There were three country songs, three Little Richard covers, and Elvis even sang Old Shep, a song that brought him second prize at a talent show when he was a kid. An EP release of four of these songs hit the top 10, and the follow-up single, Too Much, was the first number one of 1957 for Elvis.

Once again, the listed songwriters on the new hit single were more a paper trail of where the money went than a true indication of the people who actually wrote the song. Bill Beasley had a Nashville record company called Republic. Beasley and his wife Joan Norris wrote the song Too Much. Bernard Hardison recorded the original version on Beasley's label in 1955, backed by the Louis Brooks Band. The writers were listed on the label as Norris - Weinman. Norris, of course, was Beasley's wife, and Weinman was Bernie Weinman, a financial partner with Beasley. The record stiffed, and the song was forgotten until Bill Beasley heard it on the radio, sung by Elvis. Later lawsuits indicated that some intriguing machinations had replaced Norris' name in the songwriting credits with that of Lee Rosenberg. Rosenberg was apparently Weinman's secretary, and she was the person who placed the record in the hands of Elvis as he left for the West Coast to film his first movie. According to the lawsuit, Weinman and Rosenberg filed for a copyright as the writers of Too Much in 1956, having not copyrighted it in 1955 under the actual writers names. Being flush with cash from the success of a number one single, Weinman had the better attorneys and won the lawsuit, so instead of Too Much, Beasley and Norris were left with nothing at all. Incidentally, the Rosenberg share of the publishing money was the part that went to Elvis.

As so often happens when a paradigm shift is in progress, those who don't understand what's going on fight back; maybe not so much with sticks or stones, but definitely with words. Based on his first TV appearances, Elvis was pilloried in the press for "vulgarity" and "animalism". Steve Allen poked humor at these allegations by putting Presley on TV in a tuxedo singing to a dog. Ed Sullivan had declared he would never have Elvis on his show, but relented after taking it on the ratings chin. After working with Presley in person, by the end of his third appearance, Sullivan declared Elvis to be "a real decent, fine boy." Elvis concluded his January 6th, 1957 appearance on Sullivan's Toast Of The Town with the gospel song Peace In The Valley.

Guy Mitchell's Singing The Blues had given Elvis a nine-week vacation from the number one spot. Too Much popped to the top in its place the week of February 9, 1957. Incidentally, that same week at the number two spot was Young Love by Sonny James, who spent time playing with his folks in the Loden Family, and in live bands on WMPS and WHBQ in the 1950's.


http://wknofm.org/post/how-lawyers-turned-too-much-nothing-all

[colonel snow]

see previous post(s)

colonel snow

[John]

[b]

How the Lawyers Turned "Too Much" Into Nothing At All

Thanks Mister Moon, that is a really interesting article.

[Colin B]

I remember Scotty Moore talking about the recording of 'Too Much' [I'm paraphrasing here]:

"On one take, I got completely lost during the guitar solo & barely managed to get through it !
That was the take they picked as the master, the one I could never repeat as I didn't know what I was doing !"

[Mister Moon]

I remember Scotty Moore talking about the recording of 'Too Much' [I'm paraphrasing here]:

"On one take, I got completely lost during the guitar solo & barely managed to get through it !
That was the take they picked as the master, the one I could never repeat as I didn't know what I was doing !"

Ha, ha, yes. It's still a great guitar solo in its own peculiar way !

When they performed the song during Elvis' last appearance on Ed Sullivan's show (it was the current single) they didn't even bother playing the entire solo, just the intro and the outro.

[Mister Moon]

Just found this obscure verbatim version from 1957, by some fella named Rex Masters. Even the bizarre guitar solo is repeated note-for-note. Amazing :


https://www.discogs.com/artist/3831746-Rex-Masters


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufn9t8jiv3Y

[John]

Just found this obscure verbatim version from 1957, by some fella named Rex Masters. Even the bizarre guitar solo is repeated note-for-note. Amazing :


https://www.discogs.com/artist/3831746-Rex-Masters


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufn9t8jiv3Y

Looking at that sleeve, I thought it was Ricky Nelson at first.

[Mister Moon]

Just found this obscure verbatim version from 1957, by some fella named Rex Masters. Even the bizarre guitar solo is repeated note-for-note. Amazing :


https://www.discogs.com/artist/3831746-Rex-Masters


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufn9t8jiv3Y

Looking at that sleeve, I thought it was Ricky Nelson at first.

Yes, that's Ricky in the photo. They just use that as a background, I guess. I don't know any release that looks like that, and couldn't find it online. Could be a mock record sleeve.

[John]

Just found this obscure verbatim version from 1957, by some fella named Rex Masters. Even the bizarre guitar solo is repeated note-for-note. Amazing :


https://www.discogs.com/artist/3831746-Rex-Masters


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufn9t8jiv3Y

Looking at that sleeve, I thought it was Ricky Nelson at first.

Yes, that's Ricky in the photo. They just use that as a background, I guess. I don't know any release that looks like that, and couldn't find it online. Could be a mock record sleeve.

Too Much 2.jpg

Too Much.jpg

It's on Spotify and Apple Music too. How on earth does this suddenly pop up?

[Mister Moon]

Just found this obscure verbatim version from 1957, by some fella named Rex Masters. Even the bizarre guitar solo is repeated note-for-note. Amazing :


https://www.discogs.com/artist/3831746-Rex-Masters


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufn9t8jiv3Y

Looking at that sleeve, I thought it was Ricky Nelson at first.

Yes, that's Ricky in the photo. They just use that as a background, I guess. I don't know any release that looks like that, and couldn't find it online. Could be a mock record sleeve.

Too Much 2.jpgToo Much.jpg

It's on Spotify and Apple Music too. How on earth does this suddenly pop up?

Yes, thank you. Those labels are also in the Discogs link I posted. I meant the record sleeve with Ricky Nelson in it.