25 best Aerosmith singles, from 'Dream On' to 'Crazy'

It's been 40 long years since the members of Aerosmith rolled out of Boston with the psychedelic funk of "Sweet Emotion," the single that would go on to become their first Top 40 entry on the Billboard Hot 100, prompting the reissue of an earlier recording titled "Dream On."

And with that, the path was effectively cleared for Aerosmith to rule the ariwaves and arenas of their generation with classics as timeless as "Back in the Saddle," "Walk This Way" and "Last Child."

They went on to stage an unexpected, multi-platinum comeback in the '90s after bottoming out and then getting a slicker version of their mojo back on 1987's "Permanent Vacation." But their reputation ultimately hinges on the early songs that dominate this look back at Aerosmith's best singles, topped, of course, by "Dream On" — a song that is to Aerosmith what "Bohemian Rhapsody" is to Queen.

25. "Crazy" (1994)

The final single released from the seven-times-platinum "Get a Grip," this soulful ballad was cut from remarkably similar cloth as an earlier hit from the same album, "Cryin'." But this one starts with a monologue from Steven Tyler, who follows through with a brilliantly phrased performance on the verses, which suggest that he may have prepared for the session by dusting off his favorite Memphis soul recordings. "Crazy" peaked at No. 17 on Billboard's Hot 100, No. 7 on the mainstream-rock charts.

24. "Angel" (1988)

The first big power ballad of their comeback years, this "Permanent Vacation" highlight peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 while pointing the way to a lucrative future for the veteran rockers. It was written by Tyler and Desmond Child, who co-wrote several of their biggest comeback singles, including the previously mentioned "Crazy." This one has more power, though, with slashing power chords and keyboard orchestration that sounds like it was shooting for Phil Spector topped by Tyler's soaring, emotional vocals. There's also some excellent lead guitar work by the great Joe Perry.

23. "What it Takes" (1990)

The most Beatlesque ballad of their comeback years finds Tyler wondering what it takes to let you go after setting the scene with "There goes my old girlfriend, there's another diamond ring / And, uh, all those late night promises I guess they don't mean a thing." The third single from seven-times-platinum "Pump" to crack the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, this one peaked at No. 9. How Beatlesque is that?

22. "Make It" (1973)

This promo-only single was among the harder-rocking highlights of their first full-length release. It also ushered in the album with power chords, galloping drums and Tyler welcoming listeners to the show on his way to a riff-rocking chorus that, like "Dream On," is all about dreaming until your dreams come true. This one didn't do as much to make those dreams come true, but it certainly sounds like a perfectly feasible mission statement by the time it hits that dual-guitar lead.

21. "S.O.S. (Too Bad)" (1974)

The third single from "Get Your Wings," it failed to chart (much like the first two singles from that classic album). Joey Kramer sets the tone here with a beat that puts a funk-rock spin on vintage Motown grooves as Tyler, a self-described "bad lonely schoolboy," pins his dreams of sexual conquest on the hourglass body of a woman who "would if she could and she'd be good if she would."

20. "Rag Doll" (1988)

The final released from "Permanent Vacation," it filtered the essence of Aerosmith's funkiest moments through the boom-thwack beat of the hair-metal '80s, turned Joe Perry loose on slide guitar and sent out for some really punchy horns. And this is all before we've gotten to Tyler scat-singing over the fadeout like a champ. It peaked at No. 17 on Billboard's Hot 100.

19. "Cryin'" (1993)

A Pachelbel's Canon sample, hard-charging horns, a harmonica solo that sounds more like a young Bob Dylan than the grizzled bluesman young Bob Dylan would become and a waltz-time vibe that hits like Memphis soul as every aging rocker understood it at this point in our history? What's not to love? And the lyrics are among the more inspired you'll find in the song-doctor era. This one peaked at No. 12 on Billboard's Hot 100.

18. "Chip Away the Stone" (1978)

The only single from "Live! Bootleg" peaked at No. 77 on the Hot 100, rocking like a Band song as the New York Dolls would do it (in the best way possible). Tyler's phrasing on "the boys all promenade" is priceless. Those Richards-esque harmonies take the chorus to another level. Hats off to the guy who mixed the tambourine too loud. And when they kick it into overdrive with Tyler singing "I won't stop?" You'll wish they wouldn't. Stop, that is.

17. "Home Tonight" (1976)

This soulful Tyler ballad was a minor hit (No. 71 on Billboard's Hot 100), but it has more soul than any of the higher-charting ballads that came to dominate their comeback years. And that Beatlesque vocal part over the solo is a brilliant touch. It also features Perry adding lap steel to the mix without making it sound any closer to country.

16. "Mama Kin" (1973)

Released the same year as the New York Dolls' debut, this single took a similar approach to the Rolling Stones' rock-and-roll template, putting it out there with equal parts swagger and reckless abandon. It also features sax as someone would've played it in the '50s. This one never charted but it got a second lease on life when Guns N' Roses covered it on the "Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide" EP, a rendition that subsequently turned up on "G N' R Lies."

15. "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (1987)

This was their first Top 40 hit since "Come Together" nine years earlier. And this one didn't come attached to a horrible Beatles movie starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees. The energy here is infectious, from the horn riff to the urgency of Tyler's vocal. It's as though he doesn't know he's singing "Dude looks like a lady." But he is! It peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 to become their highest-charting hit since "Walk This Way."

14. "Janie's Got a Gun" (1989)

It's a safe bet that not many people were looking to Aerosmith in 1989 for a serious dose of social commentary. But that's exactly what they got in this gritty account of an incest survivor who puts a bullet through her father's brain after years of abuse. The sound is sunny psychedelic pop that seems to pick up where Dave Stewart left off on Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" a few years earlier. It peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's Hot 100.

13. "Rats in the Cellar" (1976)

There's just enough Chuck Berry in the breakneck groove to make this sound a little like a British beat group on too many prellies (as the Beatles called their speed). It's as reckless as "Toys in the Attic," which leaves you wondering why they didn't write another raucous gem about the contents of the first and second floor. The lyrics seem to be about the downside of addiction. And it does not make the lifestyle seem inviting, which may be why it never charted.

12. "Let the Music Do the Talking" (1985)

The rollicking highlight of the underrated "Done With Mirrors" marked the triumphant return of guitarist Joe Perry, who'd bailed during sessions for "Night in the Ruts" and cut this as the title track to the Joe Perry Project's first album. Steven Tyler wrote new lyrics for this re-recording, which rocks the way Aerosmith singles should while effectively letting the music do a good share of the talking. It peaked at No. 18 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

11. "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" (1979)

They've done their share of covers through the years, but this one puts them all to shame, taking a girl-group classic by the legendary Shangri-Las and reinventing it as pure Aerosmith (despite the Shangri-Las' own Mary Weiss adding her voice to the mix). It's a smoldering blues here with a tortured Tyler vocal and yet it retains the girl-group melodrama of the Shangri-Las original. It peaked at No. 67 on the Hot 100, 62 spots lower than the Shangri-Las.

10. "Kings and Queens" (1978)

Reversing the blueprint for so many of their early singles, this one comes out rocking then pulls back to hit you with the aching psychedelic splendor of the verse, where Tyler sings of "kings and queens and guillotines." As he later explained the lyrics in "Pandora's Box," this song "was just about how many people died from holy wars because of their beliefs or non-beliefs." The second song released from "Draw the Line," it peaked at No. 70.

9. "Toys in the Attic" (1975)

They've rarely rocked with more reckless abandon, leaving the things that are real behind while rocking the attic, where nothing's seen and real's a dream. It's a portrait in forward momentum with a vaguely psychedelic vocal hook. The title track to Aerosmith's third album, this one never charted, but that didn't stop it from being included as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.

8. "Draw the Line" (1977)

The title track to Aerosmith's acclaimed fifth album, this one peaked at No. 42 on Billboard's Hot 100. The central riff is a call and response between bassist Tom Hamilton and the twin-guitar attack of Brad Whitford and Perry. Meanwhile, Tyler sets the tone with "Checkmate honey, beat you at your own damn game / No dice, honey, I'm livin' on the astral plane" and brings things to an overheated climax with his shrieks coming out of the breakdown.

7. "Back in the Saddle" (1977)

They do a brilliant job of building tension on that intro, the release arriving in the form of yet another killer funk riff topped by Tyler shrieking "I'm back" with conviction on the chorus. When the verse hits, Tyler sets a scene that sounds like something from a Sergio Leone Western, riding into town alone by the light of the moon. Other Western effects include whinnying horses and galloping hooves. It peaked at No. 38 on Billboard's Hot 100.

6. "Last Child" (1976)

The first single from "Rocks," it peaked at No. 21 on Billboard's Hot 100. It starts with a moody minor-key arpeggio and Tyler's ethereal sighing of the first line "I'm dreaming tonight" before kicking into the heaviest, dirtiest funk groove in their arsenal, recalling David Bowie's "Fame." It's a slow, insistent grind with Tyler out front memorably rhyming "Take me back to a south Tallahassee" with "Down 'cross the bridge to my sweet sassafrassy."

5. "Same Old Song and Dance" (1974)

It's kind of weird to think that this one never charted. Swaggering in with a swampy guitar riff, followed by the first of several scrappy lead-guitar breaks, it finds Tyler spinning the tale of a hapless soul who's up on charges of "coincidental murder" with a judge whose ruling may be colored by a deadly blend of constipation and his wife's aggravation. Which doesn't sound a thing like the "same old story, same old song and dance" the chorus promises. The strongest single on their second album, "Get Your Wings," it also makes excellent use of horns without distracting too much from their sound.

4. "You See Me Crying" (1975)

This orchestrated ballad never charted either but it should have. It's certainly better than that Diane Warren song with which they topped the Hot 100 in the '90s. This one sounds like Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" as Big Star would have written it. It's that good. Jack Douglas recruited a symphony orchestra to arrive at a climax as majestic as it is bombastic (not dissimilar to what George Martin did a few years earlier for McCartney on "Live and Let Die"). Meanwhile, Tyler's at his soulful best, from the opening line ("You see me crying/Don't let it bring you down") to the raspier high notes he hits later.

3. "Sweet Emotion" (1975)

Tom Hamilton's hypnotic bassline leads the charge on this one, joined by bass marimba, Perry on talk box and, eventually, a psychedelic chorus hook from Tyler. But then, they abruptly shift gears into headbanging funk-rock, led by one of Perry's greatest riffs, an ascending figure with obvious echoes of Jimmy Page's early work, while Tyler spins a cryptic tale about some "mama with a face like a gent" who "said my get up and go musta got up and went." He does go on to note that his backstage boogie will set your pants on fire. And that was all it took to give the boys their first Top 40 hit (which prompted the reissue of "Dream On").

2. "Walk This Way" (1975)

It's easy to see how this single inspired a hip-hop rethink by Run-D.M.C. (whose version also features Perry on guitar and Tyler on the vocal hook). It's just that funky, drawing you in with Joey Kramer's bad-ass beat, which was born to be sampled, and Perry's most enduring contribution to the history of funk guitar. The song settles into a slinkier funk groove on the verses, where Tyler's loose-lipped delivery makes the most of his salacious schoolboy fantasies. "There was three young ladies in the school gym locker when I noticed they was lookin' at me," Tyler sings. And that's after the verse about the little temptress who just doesn't care what you see on the swings at the playground. It peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's Hot 100, while Run-D.M.C.'s version fired the opening shot of Aerosmith's '80s comeback drive.

1. "Dream On" (1973)

It's so depressing when people refer to this song as the birth of the power ballad, as though we have "Dream On" to blame for all those bloated, lighter-waving singalongs that signaled the crossover dreams of the hair-metal '80s. If this is the birth of the power ballad, the birth set a bar that has yet to be cleared (although that version of "Love Hurts" by Nazareth comes pretty close). This song is flawless, from that melancholy intro that places it closer to classical music than classic rock to Steven Tyler's soulful reading of the lyrics, setting the tone with a bittersweet recasting of the theme to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" ("Every time when I look in the mirror/All these lines on my face getting clearer"). Then, it kicks it into high gear on a chorus that picks up where "Stairway to Heaven" left off, with Joe Perry squeezing out sparks on distorted electric guitar and Tyler wailing the chorus hook, taking it up an octave for a screeching, soulful climax. The best song, by far, on their self-titled first album, it stalled at No. 59 on Billboard's Hot 100 but hit No. 6 three years later when the label wisely re-released it.