Aerosmith - Walk This Way

"Walk This Way" is a song by American hard rock group Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. It was originally released as the second single from their 1975 album Toys in the Attic. It peaked at #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 resurrect their career and revolutionized rock and roll and hip hop music when it was re-made in 1986 with rappers Run-D.M.C. on their album Raising Hell. It became an international hit and won both groups a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap - Single in 1987.

The song was covered by UK girl groups Sugababes and Girls Aloud as the official Comic Relief single in 2007.

The song starts out with the famous two measure drum beat intro by Joey Kramer, followed up the equally famous guitar riff by Joe Perry. The song then goes into the verse, with a steady drum beat and bassline by Tom Hamilton forming as the backbeat, with dueling guitars by Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. The lyrics, which tell the story of a high school boy losing his virginity, are sung quite fast by Steven Tyler, with heavy emphasis being placed on the rhyming lyrics (e.g., "so I took a big chance at the high school dance"). This rap-style delivery -- which may explain why the song worked so well as a rap song when it was re-made 11 years later -- was ahead of its time. Between the elaborately detailed verses, the chorus primarily consists of a repetition of "Walk this way, talk this way". In collaborations, the other singer often says "talk this way" every alternate line of the chorus. Live in concert, Steven Tyler often has the audience, combined with members of the band, sing "talk this way". There is also a lengthy guitar solo at the end of the song, and in concert, Steven Tyler will often harmonize his voice to mimic the sounds of the guitar. In the Run-D.M.C. cover, the turntable is added in to reflect the additional hip hop influence on the record.

While the band were working on Toys in the Attic, having written the music for the song but having difficulty coming up with lyrics for it, they decided to take a break and see Young Frankenstein, where the "Walk This Way" gag provided the basis (or phrase) for the lyrics.

While the Run-DMC cover is nearly identical to the original version of the song, the Girls Aloud/Sugababes cover has a few changes tweaked into the song; the additional line "Walk this way, you wanna talk this way" is added, the vocoder is added, and the beat is slightly sped up to add a further dance pop influence to the song.

Both versions of the song, the original Aerosmith version and the second Aerosmith/Run-DMC remake version, appear on various Aerosmith compilations.