Artist:   Elvis Presley
Song:   "Too Much"
Album: Elvis
Label:   RCA
Year:    1956

This might not have been the biggest song of Elvis Presley’s gravity-defying career, but it’s one that continues to hold hidden wonders as it raises chillbumps the size of quarters up and down the arms. It could easily have been recorded for Excello Records with Lightnin’ Slim’s backing band; it’s that funky. The guitar is crazy with tremolo power, the lead line strutting through the entire song like a staccato-ridden mantra. None of Presley’s other ‘50s music had as much swampy fire, sounding like he wanted to go way back in the alley and show where he got a ton of his sonic inspiration. The backbeat itself is almost Pavlovian with its whiplash power, and if it hadn’t been for the Jordanaires sweet backing vocals, “Too Much” would go down as the King’s greasiest recording. Scotty Moore’s lead guitar solo alone sounded like a rocket ship taking off for Saturn, ratcheting up the tension so high that the song seems to snap right in two as the notes chase each other around the grooves with dizzying speed. Elvis Presley had an uncanny instinct to find the perfect songs right up until he went into the Army in 1958. Then, after his mother died and he left the service, he lost his snap, making bad movies and hitting mostly dry holes on his material. During the ‘50s, though, he had an inner radar that led him to exactly what he needed to sing. With his band of Moore, drummer D.J. Fontana and bassist Bill Black, they didn’t make many mistakes. “Too Much” shows them at their most excited, throwing caution out the window and showing how rock & roll was an irresistible force that could not be stopped. “Hound Dog,” “Heartbreak Hotel” and all the other classics got most of the attention, but this one hits the heart’s bullseye, and still deserves to be heard and felt.