Walk This Way
"Walk This Way" is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the album Toys in the Attic (1975). It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1977, part of a string of successful hit singles for the band in the 1970s. In addition to being one of the songs that helped break Aerosmith into the mainstream in the 1970s, it also helped revitalize their career in the 1980s[4] when it was covered by hip hop group Run-D.M.C. (in collaboration with Aerosmith) on their 1986 album Raising Hell. This cover was a touchstone for the new musical subgenre of rap rock, or the melding of rock and hip hop.[4] It reached number 4 on the Billboard charts and becoming the first rock/hip hop single to reach the top five on the charts, and won both groups a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Single in 1987 Soul Train Music Awards. Both versions are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5]
For other uses, see Walk This Way (disambiguation)."Walk This Way"
- "Round and Round"[1]
- "Uncle Salty" (re-release)
- August 28, 1975 (original)
- November 5, 1976 (re-release)
January–February 1975
Record Plant, New York City
3:40
Production[edit]
Music[edit]
The song starts out with a two measure drum beat intro by Joey Kramer, followed by a guitar riff composed by Joe Perry. The song proceeds with the main riff, with Perry and Brad Whitford on guitar with Tom Hamilton on bass. The song continues with rapid fire lyrics by Steven Tyler.
In December 1974, Aerosmith opened for the Guess Who in Honolulu. During the sound check, guitarist Joe Perry was "fooling around with riffs and thinking about the Meters," a group guitarist Jeff Beck had turned him on to. Loving "their riffy New Orleans funk, especially 'Cissy Strut' and 'People Say'", he asked the drummer "to lay down something flat with a groove on the drums." The guitar riff to what would become "Walk This Way" just "came off [his] hands."[6] Needing a bridge, he:
Reception[edit]
Cash Box said that "Steve Tyler's vocal is aggressive, gritty and right on as he literally spits out a slew of lyrics while never losing clarity" and that "the music itself is hardboiled rock."[8] Record World said that "the pattern that sent 'Dream On' up the charts is again being established."[9] In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", at number 26.[10]
Legacy[edit]
"Walk This Way" was one of two hit singles by the band to hit the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1970s, the other one being a re-release of "Dream On". "Walk This Way", though, helped Toys in the Attic to be the bestselling Aerosmith album, and one of the most critically acclaimed. Aerosmith's version of "Walk This Way" often competes with "Sweet Emotion" and "Dream On" for the title of Aerosmith's signature song, being one of the band's most important, influential, and recognizable songs. The band rarely omits it from their concert setlist, still performing their classic version of the song to this day. The song has also long been a staple of rock radio, garnering regular airplay on mainstream rock, classic rock, and album-oriented rock radio stations. In 2009, it was named the eighth greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.[21]
Fee Waybill, Steve Lukather, Tim Bogert and Tommy Aldridge covered the song for the Aerosmith tribute album Not the Same Old Song and Dance (Eagle Records, 1999).
Aerosmith reference lyrics from the song in "Legendary Child". The line "I took a chance at the high school dance never knowing wrong from right" references lyrics from the songs "Walk This Way" and "Adam's Apple" respectively. Both songs first appeared on the album Toys in the Attic.
In 2019, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[22]
"Walk This Way"
"Walk This Way" (instrumental)
July 4, 1986
March 9, 1986
- 5:17 (album version)
- 3:38 (single/video version)
Later collaborations[edit]
At the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show in January 2001, performers *NSYNC, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly joined Aerosmith onstage for an encore performance of "Walk This Way" with Spears and members of *NSYNC singing different parts of the second verse, Blige adding background harmony, and Nelly performing a rap towards the end of the song.
DMC and Steve Tyler closed-out the July 2005 "Celebration of the Seas" event on Key Largo with a stage performance of "Walk This Way".
Aerosmith and Run-DMC performed "Walk This Way" at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020.