Mötley Crüe released Too Fast for Love on November 10, 1981, through their own Leathür Records. Their debut began with a pressing of just 900 LPs, before the band had a major-label deal. “Live Wire” opened the ten-track album, which included a song that would disappear from its familiar Elektra running order: “Stick to Your Guns.”
The group had come together that year, with Vince Neil singing, Mick Mars on guitar, Nikki Sixx on bass and Tommy Lee on drums. Sixx had already been writing material before Mötley Crüe formed, giving the new band songs to build around. They produced the album themselves and recorded at Hit City West in Los Angeles. With record companies showing little interest, the musicians had taken on the work of making and releasing their own debut.
The studio was modest, but the band arrived with its identity already in place. Engineer Robert Battaglia recalled in a 2022 Metal Edge interview that they turned up with their hair done, wearing leather, chains and metal spikes. He remembered Lee’s forceful drumming and Mars carrying himself with more experience than the others. The sessions used a Soundcraft console and an MCI 24-track tape machine; between takes, the musicians could play Pac-Man in the lounge. Battaglia remembered them as friends who arrived prepared, and said he hadn’t seen partying, drugs or even beer during his work on the sessions.
Even the sleeve helps distinguish that first release from later copies. Its lettering was black and white, and the insert showed Sixx with his arms crossed. Subsequent Leathür pressings introduced red lettering and changes to the photographs. The album went through revisions before and after Elektra became involved, so a red-lettered sleeve alone doesn’t identify the remixed edition.
Elektra signed Mötley Crüe in 1982 and had the album remixed under Roy Thomas Baker’s supervision. The revision changed more than the balance of the instruments. “Stick to Your Guns” came off the album, the title track lost its original opening, and the running order was rearranged. “Come On and Dance” moved into the second slot, while “Take Me to the Top” moved farther down the first side. The original ten-song record became a nine-song edition.
There was an exception to that transition. Early Canadian Elektra copies retained the Leathür mixes and “Stick to Your Guns” because the label wanted records available for the band’s Canadian tour before the remix was ready. Later Canadian pressings switched to the revised version. For listeners comparing editions, the label name and the recording inside didn’t always change at the same time.
Neil preferred the band’s original version. “I prefer the rawness of the version that we did ourselves,” he told Classic Rock in an interview first published in September 2010. He also described that independent recording as a demo tape.
The Elektra edition became the standard version of Too Fast for Love, carrying those early recordings beyond their initial run. The album earned RIAA platinum certification in 1986, five years after the band released the first Leathür pressing.
