Aerosmith’s first and only Billboard number one
Aerosmith has never exactly been considered pop-chart friendly most of the time. Despite being one of the greatest creative forces in rock and dominating the rock and roll charts, most of their time on the mainstream hit parade was relegated to only the odd single cracking the top ten here and there. As the band entered the 1990s, the soundtrack to the Michael Bay movie Armageddon gave them their first true number one single.
Before the band had started becoming the darlings of hard rock, they could barely get arrested playing any of their material. Compared to their contemporaries, the songs from Steven Tyler and Joe Perry usually took a back seat to what artists like Bruce Springsteen were doing then, painting vivid pictures in his songs rather than the band’s odes to the rock and roll lifestyle.
After the band began to hone their craft on the road, they started turning a corner with their album Toys in the Attic. Spawning hits like ‘Walk This Way’, the band would re-release their power ballad ‘Dream On’ which was left over from their debut album, which managed to climb all the way to number six on the rock charts.
Although the band would eventually come to a screeching halt after Perry’s departure after the album Draw the Line, they would become revitalised when they got sober, leading to the guitarist’s return and becoming MTV staples. Helping pave the way for the sounds of hair metal back in the 1970s, the band’s brand of rock and roll fit perfectly into the video model, earning them some of their first chart-toppers on the rock charts with songs like ‘Love In An Elevator’.
Even when the grunge movement began, the band gracefully worked their way through the next decade, earning hits off the back of landmark videos featuring future Clueless star Alicia Silverstone, like ‘Cryin’ and ‘Amazing’. While the song ‘Crazy’ would also feature Tyler’s daughter Liv as the main focus, she would ultimately get the chance to join the cast of Armageddon alongside Ben Affleck.
With Aerosmith providing pieces for the soundtrack, the band were knocked out by a ballad presented to them by songwriter Diane Warren. Featuring a massive string ensemble, the song would launch Aerosmith to the top of the singles charts for the first time, dominating the summer of 1998 and earning them even more critical acclaim when Tyler performed the track at the Oscars at the following year’s ceremony.
Even though Liv walked away from the film a star and eventually got nods when working in future films like Lord of the Rings, her father had a few different ideas after their signature song topped the charts. Maybe they didn’t have to be rock and roll anymore. Maybe they could just keep riding that gravy train forever.
For as many accolades that the song received, it would also become somewhat of an albatross around the band’s neck, as Tyler proceeded to make songs trying to capture the magic all over again on tracks like ‘Girls of Summer’ in the 2000s. Even though the band may have tried their best to combine their hard rock audience with the goodwill they had from ‘I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing’, their signature power ballad is the kind of song which only comes once in every career.
