Aerosmith is a classic hard rock band that has been the model American rock band for generations of younger rock bands for over three decades. The band first came together in 1970 in Boston, when vocalist Steven Tyler met up with guitarist Joe Perry. Tyler already had his first taste of recording, when he recorded the single "When I Needed You" with his band Chain Reaction. Perry was jamming with a local band on the side while working in an ice cream shop. According to rumors, Tyler visited Perry's ice cream shop and proceeded to mess up the place. Perry and Tyler almost went to blows over the incident, until Perry found out that Tyler was a singer. He asked Tyler to check out his band, and after much deliberation, Tyler joined the band, which also included Tom Hamilton on bass, Joey Kramer on drums, and Brad Whitford on guitar. The group named themselves Aerosmith, coming from Kramer's drawings in his notebook about an imaginary rock band with the same name.
The group played the local circuit in Boston until 1972, when they were discovered by a Columbia Records executive. They were signed to the label that year, and in 1973, their first album, Aerosmith, was released. It featured the now classic anthem, "Dream On". In 1974, their second album, Get Your Wings, featured the hit "Same Old Song And Dance". The band was slowly making headway, but it wasn't until 1975, when their third album, Toys In The Attic, broke Aerosmith big. This album featured the big hits "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion", and has since sold well over six million copies.
In 1976, the band released their fourth album, Rocks. This album was another big album for the band, featuring the hit "Back In The Saddle". This was followed by Draw The Line (1977) and Live Bootleg (1978). By this time, however, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry had fallen into a deep abyss of alcohol and drug addiction, which not only affected their relationship, but the rest of the band as well.
By the time of the 1979 release Night In The Ruts, Tyler and Perry were at odds with each other. The album wasn't as strong as the band's previous releases, and Perry left the band shortly after to form the Joe Perry Project. In 1980, Aerosmith released their Greatest Hits album, which featured a cover of the Beatles' song "Come Together". The band debuted the song in the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", in which they played an evil futuristic band. After this release, guitarist Brad Whitford left the band to form the duo Whitford-St. Holmes with former Ted Nugent guitarist Derek St. Holmes.
Tyler, Kramer and Hamilton added guitarist Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay to replace Perry and Whitford, and carried on. They released the album Rock In A Hard Place in 1982, but sales were disappointing, and Columbia Records dropped them. It looked as if Aerosmith's days of glory were over for good.
In 1984, Steven Tyler made his peace with Joe Perry, and Perry rejoined Aerosmith. After getting Brad Whitford to rejoin, Aerosmith signed to Geffen Records and released Done With Mirrors in 1985. The album was a big improvement over some of their previous releases, but it wasn't until Perry and Tyler went clean and sober that the band refocused and concentrated on becoming the biggest band in the world. In 1986, the rap act Run DMC covered Aerosmith's classic track "Walk This Way", and featured Perry and Tyler in the video. This event sparked new interest in Aerosmith, and the band took advantage of it. Columbia Records released a live compilation, Classics Live, that year as well.
In 1987, the band released the album Permanent Vacation, which was the first in a series of big selling albums for Aerosmith. This album featured the hits "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" and "Rag Doll". Columbia also released a second live collection in 1987, Classics Live II. In 1988 came another Columbia compilation, titled Gems. This was followed by the Geffen album Pump (1989), which featured "Love In An Elevator" and "Janie's Got A Gun". Sales of "Permanent Vacation" and "Pump" more than made up for the losses Aerosmith suffered in the early 1980s.
In 1991, Columbia Records released Aerosmith's first ever box set, titled Pandora's Box. This set featured a lot of rare tracks, including Steven Tyler's first song with Chain Reaction. It seemed as if Columbia was trying to get Aerosmith to return to the label, but the band was still tied to Geffen for a few more releases. In 1993 came the album Get A Grip, another successful release, with the hits "Eat The Rich" and "Amazing". In 1994, Aerosmith released their last album for Geffen, a greatest hits compilation titled Big Ones, with two new songs, including "Blind Man". That year, Columbia released another box set, Box Of Fire, which featured remastered versions of all of their Columbia albums, as well as more rare tracks from the band's vault.
Aerosmith returned to Columbia Records in 1995, and released the album Nine Lives in 1997. This album featured the hit "Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)". In 1998 came the live album A Little South Of Sanity, featuring live versions of hits from both the Columbia and Geffen years. Later that year, the band recorded two new songs for the movie "Armageddon". The ballad, "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing", became the first Aerosmith single to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts.
Aerosmith progressed into the new millennium, outlasting the life expectancy of most rock bands. Their 2001 album, Just Push Play, featured the hit single "Jaded". The band finished their contract with Geffen later that year with the release of Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology. Less than a year later, Columbia released yet another anthology, titled O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits. This compilation featured two new songs, including the single "Girls Of Summer".
For their next album, Aerosmith decided to cover their favorite blues songs as an experiment. This made perfect sense, since Aerosmith's sound was based on hard rock blues and swagger. The resulting album, Honkin' On Bobo, was released in 2004. Their cover of "Baby Please Don't Go" charted in the top 10, proving that Aerosmith had not lost their popularity at all. In 2005, a live album, Rockin' The Joint, was released from a show in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel during the "Just Push Play" tour.
The year 2006 saw the release of another hits compilation, Devil's Got A New Disguise: The Very Best Of Aerosmith, which featured two new tracks, "Sedona Sunrise" and the title track. Currently, the band is taking a break, but Aerosmith is nowhere near the end of the line yet. As vocalist Steven Tyler once said, "You can't kill the train of rock 'n' roll...it will live forever." And that train keeps on rollin'!