Aerosmith

Aerosmith formed in Boston in 1970 when vocalist Steven Tyler met guitarist Joe Perry at a club in Sunapee, New Hampshire. They added Brad Whitford on guitar, Tom Hamilton on bass, and Joey Kramer on drums — a lineup that stayed together, with brief interruptions, for over fifty years. They signed with Columbia Records in 1972.

The first three albums — Aerosmith (1973), Get Your Wings (1974), and Toys in the Attic (1975) — built them from a Stones-copying bar band into arena headliners. Dream On became their first hit. Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion made them superstars.

Rocks (1976) is the hard rock masterpiece — raw, aggressive, and Keith Richards himself called it his favourite American rock album.

Then drugs destroyed everything. Perry left in 1979. Whitford followed.

The early 80s were a wasteland. But sobriety and a Run-DMC collaboration on Walk This Way in 1986 relaunched the entire career. Permanent Vacation (1987), Pump (1989), and Get a Grip (1993) sold tens of millions of copies and produced a string of power ballads — Cryin', Crazy, Amazing — that dominated MTV.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Retirement in 2024 after Tyler's vocal cord injury. Over 150 million records sold.

The debut Aerosmith (January 1973) is a blues-rock album that lives or dies on Dream On — Steven Tyler's piano ballad that builds to one of the great rock screams. The rest is raw and unpolished, but Mama Kin and Walkin' the Dog show a band that worships the Rolling Stones and isn't shy about it.

Toys in the Attic (April 1975) is the breakthrough. Walk This Way — that funk-rock riff from Joe Perry, Tyler's rapid-fire lyrics — changed what rock radio could sound like. Sweet Emotion opens with one of the most recognisable bass lines in rock.

The album went eight times platinum.

Rocks (May 1976) is the one the musicians love. Back in the Saddle, Last Child, Nobody's Fault, Rats in the Cellar — it's meaner, dirtier, and more dangerous than anything before. Kurt Cobain called it one of his favourite albums.

Slash learned guitar playing along to it. This is the blueprint that Guns N' Roses would build Appetite for Destruction on.

After the lost years, Permanent Vacation (1987) marked the comeback: Dude (Looks Like a Lady), Rag Doll, Angel — polished hits produced by Bruce Fairbairn. Pump (1989) went deeper: Love in an Elevator, Janie's Got a Gun (about child abuse — brave for a hair metal era), What It Takes. Get a Grip (1993) was the commercial peak: Cryin', Crazy, Amazing, Livin' on the Edge — 20 million copies sold worldwide, Alicia Silverstone in every video.

Aerosmith proved that a rock band can have two complete careers. The 70s version — raw, dangerous, drug-fueled — influenced Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, and every sleaze-rock band that followed. The comeback version — polished, sober, MTV-friendly — showed that reinvention doesn't have to mean selling out.

Walk This Way with Run-DMC in 1986 didn't just save Aerosmith's career — it broke the wall between rock and hip-hop. That collaboration is one of the most important singles in music history, opening doors that still haven't closed.

Steven Tyler's voice — that elastic, blues-screaming, impossibly wide range — is one of the great instruments in rock. Joe Perry's guitar tone sits somewhere between Keith Richards and Jimmy Page. Together they earned the nickname "the Toxic Twins" and delivered a songbook that spans from Dream On's quiet piano to Back in the Saddle's roaring distortion.

150 million records. Fifty years. Not bad for five guys from Boston.