12 Best Aerosmith Songs of All Time
We take a look at Aerosmith’s greatest ever songs.
Image via @aerosmith (Facebook)
One of America’s greatest rock and roll acts, Aerosmith, have sadly been forced to call it a day from touring. A vocal injury sustained by frontman Steven Tyler in 2023 has failed to heal, forcing the hitmakers to cancel their postponed farewell tour for good.
The devastating news comes as Aerosmith celebrates their 54th year in the music business. Forming in Boston in 1970, the band, consisting of Steven Tyler (vocals), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whitford (guitar), have sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, making them one of the most successful rock bands on the planet. They’ve also won six American Music Awards, taken home four Grammy Awards and achieved an incredible nine number-one hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts.
Merging classic rock with blues and pop elements, Aerosmith established themselves as hard rock superstars from the outset, releasing hit albums and singles throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s before finally landing their first Billboard Hot 100 #1 in 1998 with ‘I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing’.
Although they’ve not released an album of new material since 2012s Music From Another Dimension, Aerosmith have enjoyed a resurgence in the years before Tyler’s injury thanks to the rise of nostalgia touring.
As fans of Aerosmith and all that they’ve accomplished over the journey, we wanted to commemorate their historic career by taking a look at the band’s best songs.
Read on and enjoy our picks for the best Aerosmith songs of all time.
‘Janie’s Got a Gun’ (1989)
Reaching the top of the ARIA Single Charts in 1989, 'Janie's Got a Gun' is one of Aerosmith's most well-knonw tunes. While a standard power ballad on the surface, ‘Janie’s Got a Gun’ explores dark subject matter, with the song inspired by child abuse and gun deaths in America. It tells the story of a young girl who’s been abused by her father and takes revenge by shooting him in cold blood. Heavy stuff.
The song won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1990 and helped propel the album it was taken from, Pump, to the top of the ARIA Album Charts.
Fun fact: the music video was shot by David Fincher, who would go on to direct Seven, Gone Girl and The Social Network.
‘Dream On’ (1973)
Aerosmith’s debut single is a piano rock ballad that had a second life in 2002 when Eminem sampled the tune for his hit, ‘Sing for the Moment’.
In his memoir Walk This Way, Steven Tyler explained how he wrote the song on a Steinway upright piano four years before Aerosmith got together.
While a minor hit when first released in 1973, the band re-released the unedited album cut of ‘Dream On’ three years later (the original radio version was a minute shorter) which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
‘Sweet Emotion’ (1975)
‘Sweet Emotion’ is about Aerosmith members Tyler, Whitford, Hamilton and Kramer’s disdain for Perry’s first wife.
Speaking with Howard Stern on The Howard Stern Show, Tyler revealed the song concerns “Elyssa, Joe’s girl who was pissing me off.”
The story goes Tyler and Perry used to live together and spent all their time writing songs. When Elyssa appeared on the scene, Perry spent less time with Tyler and eventually moved in with Elyssa, leading Tyler to pen ‘Sweet Emotion’ in revenge for Perry abandoning him.
Although it only reached as high as #36 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song is one of Aerosmith’s signature tunes and became a staple of their live sets.
‘Walk This Way’ ft. Run-DMC (1986)
Sure, the original 1975 version of ‘Walk This Way’ was a top ten Billboard Hot 100 hit that helped Aerosmith’s third album Toys in the Attic sell over nine million copies, but it was the Run-DMC cover/remix that re-energised the band in the mid-80s after several years without a hit.
While Run-DMC wasn’t overly keen on the idea of covering the song, uber-producer Rick Rubin convinced them to lay down vocals, roping in Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to help record the new version to add authenticity.
The song was another huge hit, helped by the Joe Small-directed music video that was on high rotation on MTV. ‘Walk This Way’ rejuvenated Aerosmith’s career while exposing Run-DMC to an entirely new audience unfamiliar with the trio.
‘Back in the Saddle’ (1977)
The album opener to Aerosmith's fourth long player Rocks, 'Back in the Saddle' is balls to the wall 70s rock.
Built around the phrase ‘back in the saddle’, which was suggested by producer Jack Douglas as a way of letting everyone know Aerosmith was back with a bang, Steven Tyler took it in a different direction and wrote a song about a cowboy’s sexual escapades, as you do.
The song was a minor hit but grew legs over the years and is another fan favourite that often made the band’s setlist.
‘Livin on the Edge’ (1993)
Taken from the band’s 1993 album Get a Grip, ‘Livin’ on the Edge’ was lambasted by critics, with Entertainment Weekly’s David Browne commenting the song “might have worked better if it didn’t sound like Bon Jovi trying hard to sound like Aerosmith.” Ouch.
While the critics didn’t think much of ‘Livin’ on the Edge’, the fans did, with the song topping the US Mainstream Rock Charts and winning a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.
‘Angel’ (1988)
Entering the late 80s, Aerosmith were struggling with their success. Drug addiction was widespread amongst the band and the unexpected commercial failure of Done With Mirrors had critics wondering if the bubble had burst.
Knowing they needed a hit record to save their careers, the band got sober and entered the studio to record their ninth album, Permanent Vacation.
The LP was both critically and commercially successful and spawned the US Billboard Hot 100 #3 charting ‘Angel’. A sombre power ballad with a ripping Joe Perry guitar riff, the song is everything you want from an Aerosmith tune and more.
‘Crazy’ (1994)
‘Crazy’ is a blues meets country ballad with a wicked harmonica line featuring Steven Tyler’s yearnful vocals. Talking with Rolling Stone about the song in 2015, Tyler said, “It was country – we just Aerosmith’d it.” It’s hard to disagree with his assessment.
The song is also memorable for its music video which features Alicia Silverstone alongside Tyler’s own daughter Liv, who was 16 at the time and making her second on-screen appearance after starring in a commercial for Pantene.
‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ (1987)
One of Aerosmith’s more controversial songs is about a man who’s mistaken for a woman. According to the Huffington Post, the song is based on a true incident when Aerosmith walked into a bar and mistook Mötley Crue’s blonde, long-haired frontman Vince Neil for a woman.
The original song was based around the chorus ‘Crusin’ for Ladies’, but when songwriter Desmond Child – who was helping the band at the time – heard it, he urged the band to find something more catchy. They eventually settled on the line ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’, which Steven Tyler had first penned when the song was in its infancy.
A snappy rock tune, the subject matter caused quite a stir. The details a guy falling for a stripper who he discovers is a man and not a woman. ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ was labelled transphobic, something the band and Child refute.
Child discussed the song on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, explaining the lyrics "Never judge a book by its cover, or who you're going to love by your lover,” are about being accepting of someone no matter what gender they identify as.
Whatever your thoughts on the song, ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ was another huge record for Aerosmith that helped complete their late 80s comeback.
‘Love in an Elevator’ (1989)
According to Society of Rock, ‘Love in an Elevator’ is based on a real-life incident involving Steven Tyler and a throng of near-naked women in an elevator.
Finding himself in a hot tub full of naked women, as you do, Tyler decided to take the party back to his hotel room. Jumping in an elevator with the women, who were wearing towels to protect their modesty, one decided to show Tyler the goods just as the elevator door opened, giving those waiting to get into the elevator an eye full.
As for the song itself, ‘Love in an Elevator’ ticks all the Aerosmith boxes. The guitar riff is catchy as hell, the bass oozes sexuality, the percussion gets you nodding along and Tyler’s sultry vocals about “lovin’ it up when I’m going down” bring it all together.
‘Mama Kin’ (1973)
Another fan favourite, ‘Mama Kin’ is taken from Aerosmith’s self-titled debut studio album. A blues-infused rock and roll explosion, the track pairs thrilling guitar licks with Tyler’s familiar vocal delivery.
‘Mama Kin’ is often spotlighted as one of the band’s best compositions and came in at #7 on Rolling Stone’s reader poll of the best ten Aerosmith songs ever released.
Similar to ‘Back in the Saddle’, it was another staple of Aerosmith’s live sets.
‘I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing’ (1998)
Last but not least is Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing’, the band’s one and only Billboard Hot 100 #1 single.
While rock purists and longtime Aerosmith fans might not have been as enamoured with this song as the rest of the world when it was released in 1998, there’s no denying it’s one of the band’s most well-known tunes.
The theme song for Michael Bay’s ridiculous yet entertaining disaster epic Armaggedon, ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’ is an epic power ballad and one of four songs Aerosmith contributed to the soundtrack.
The other three were the previously unreleased ‘What Kind of Lover Are You On’, a cover of the Beatles ‘Come Together’ and their own 1975 hit ‘Sweet Emotion’.
