According to Wikipedia, he only received $6800 originally, and nothing further after that. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Phillips

Last edited by Lorne (March 24, 2020 11:04 pm)

When I looked up the sheet music for Sea Of Love I noticed that all the rights for the song were administered by the Peer International Group, and the copyright is listed as 1957, 1959 Fort Knox Music Co. I'm assuming Phil sold his rights to the song so Fort Knox got the gold and Phil got the shaft. Not that hard to imagine as around the same time Willie Nelson sold the rights to a couple of his classics for under $100 each just to put food on his table. My favorite version of Sea Of Love is by The Honeydrippers.

I'm sure Phil did not get all the royalties that were due him from "Sea Of Love", but it should be noted that $6800 back then was about a years pay for a lot of the working folks and probably helped him a lot.
The story I heard about Willie Nelson and his poverty days was told to me by Faron Young.  Willie had 3 solid chart hits in 1961 ("Crazy" - Patsy, "Hello Walls" - Faron and "Funny How Time Slips Away" - Jimmy Elledge (pop) and Billy Walker {C&W}) but the money hadn't come in yet.  He bumped into Faron one night at Tootsie's Lounge and told him he needed money and he'd sell Faron the publishing to "Hello Walls" for $500.  Faron proceeded to chew him out, saying that song would earn him a bunch more than that, you (fill in the blanks).  "$500, Hell, here!".  He reached in his pocket and pulled out the $500 and said "pay me back when you can".  About 6 weeks later, Faron was at Tootsie's again when Willie came running in the door, ran up to Faron, kissed him full on the mouth and gave him $600.  His first royalties check had been over $20K in 1962 dollars.

It's me Karen wrote:

. My favorite version of Sea Of Love is by The Honeydrippers.

I agree.  What a great version.  I read somewhere that Robert Plant did the song as a gag,..Bermuda shorts and Frank Zappa look-alike in a Speedo and all.

The video for the song confirms what you're saying, including the Bermuda shorts and Speedo. And Plant does like he's doing it as a bit of a lark. Gotta love it.