Abstract In the spirit of classic rock physics, and as an ideal foundation for conventional quantitative interpretation workflows, we consider several popular models relating elastic rock properties to their composition, microstructure, and effective stress on the background of a worldwide log data set, incorporating sands and shales characterized by the maximum dynamic impedance range. We demonstrate that the patchy cement model, ellipsoidal inclusion model, and siliciclastic diagenesis model may be calibrated successfully against the world data set and used in seismic rock property log restoration/editing. We also demonstrate that some of these models present obvious challenges in terms of the information derived from quantitative seismic interpretation. Notably, the key input parameters used in these rock-physics models may show little resemblance to the rock parameters actually observed in geologic studies. Replacing the true rock parameters with the effective ones may do disservice to the science of rock physics in general.