Why Aerosmith hate their only number one hit
Regardless of how successful an artist might be, landing a number one hit can be tricky. Some of the biggest musicians in the world have never gone high enough to achieve that top spot in the charts, while other big names have only graced the position once or twice. Aerosmith understand this frustration, as despite their success in the 1970s and ‘80s, they wouldn’t have a number-one song until the late ‘90s.
Every band constantly has something to prove, but this applied to Aerosmith more than any other at the time. Because of their sound, Steve Tyler’s long hair, flamboyant nature, and vocal tone, they were persistently compared to the Rolling Stones. The Band couldn’t release any music or see any success without people claiming they were ripping off Jagger and Co, meaning they were constantly writing and performing like they had a real point to prove.
How much does a number one really matter when you’re successful anyway? To many, it doesn’t, but it must have become somewhat tiresome for Aerosmith, as the constant comparisons and the fact they never had a number one single likely grated on them. In the ‘90s, when a wave of nostalgia seemed to hit pop culture and the charts, it was finally their chance.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was big again thanks to its reference in Wayne’s World. Meanwhile, Scream became famous because of its ability to reference older horror movies from the ‘70s. A lot of people were looking forward by looking back, and given Aerosmith’s rise to fame in the ‘70s, they saw a surge in their popularity. One of their biggest songs from this period was their only number one, ‘I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’.
Despite the song’s success, it ended up being one of the band’s more divisive numbers. Joey Kramer, the band’s drummer, has been vocal in the past about the fact the band didn’t connect with the track very much, calling it “Just another song”. His blasé attitude towards the track was shared by die-hard Aerosmith fans. There is a reason why both the band and some fans struggled to connect with the track.
Diane Warren wrote the song; the band had no input whatsoever. It wasn’t the first time that Aerosmith had worked with other writers, but on previous occasions, it had always been a group effort. Because ‘I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’ was being written for the movie Armageddon, the band didn’t have any input, and it was purely a creation of Warren. Aerosmith likely resented the track, given their first and only time topping the charts was playing a song they weren’t responsible for. Equally, big fans of the band felt the song strayed too far from their signature sound. They had previously written power ballads, but this took the whole thing to a new level.
Regardless of their attitude towards it, there is no escaping the fact that Aerosmith owes a great deal to the song. “We were just about to go off the road and that song came around,” recalled Kramer, “We continued to tour off that song for another year. That was welcomed by the band. At that time, that was what we did. We would be on the road for twelve or eighteen months, and the only time we came off the road was to make another record.”
