• Writers: Steven Tyler and Joe Perry
• Producer: Jack Douglas
• Recorded: February 1975 at the Record Plant Studios in New York City
• Released: April 1975
• Players:
  Steven Tyler — vocals, harmonica, percussion
  Joe Perry — guitar
  Brad Whitford — guitar
  Tom Hamilton — bass
  Joey Kramer — drums
• Album: Toys In The Attic (Columbia, 1975)
• Also On:
  Live! Bootleg (Columbia, 1978)
  Greatest Hits (Columbia, 1980)
  Classics Live II (Columbia, 1988)
  and many other compilations
• Following “Dream On,” “Walk This Way” was Aerosmith‘s second hit single, peaking at Number 10 in early 1977.
• Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler originally wanted to call the Toys In The Attic album Love At First Bite, after a line in the song “Adam’s Apple.” Lead guitarist Joe Perry‘s original choice was Rocks, which the band used for its next album.
• In the book Walk This Way: The Autobiography Of Aerosmith, Perry remembered Toys In The Attic as the album on which Aerosmith “started to become recording artists instead of having our albums being a record of us playing live.”
• Of “Walk This Way,” Perry said, “I was into funky stuff, had played James Brown songs over the years, and at the time was listening to lots of the Meters from New Orleans, one of the best bands in the country, and I was asking, ‘Why don’t we write our own songs that have that feel to them? Let’s try to write something funky so we don’t have to cover James Brown.’ At the sound check in Hawaii, I came up with that riff, added it to another one I came up with while watching a Godzilla movie — one of my favorite compositional methods — and Steven wrote the lyrics in the stairwell of the Record Plant.”
• Tyler said the title was inspired by the part in the 1974 Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein where Marty Feldman tells Gene Wilder to “walk this way.” Bassist Tom Hamilton said the group told Tyler, “‘Hey, the name of the song is ‘Walk This Way.’ He says, ‘Whaddaya mean, I didn’t write the lyrics yet!’ But we said, ‘Trust us.’”
• Tyler wrote one set of lyrics, but left them in a taxi on the way to the studio, forcing him to rewrite the song at the Record Plant.
• The “backstroke lover” in the lyrics refers to masturbation, while the verse about the cheerleader, her sister, and her cousin was drawn from Tyler’s fantasy of being with two women, which he called “the most sensual experience you will ever have on this planet.”
• Tyler was surprised when he read a newspaper article in 1976 “about how disgusting rock lyrics are, and they used ‘Walk This Way’ as an example of how lyrics should be nice and wholesome. I couldn’t believe it. Obviously, they didn’t get the meaning of ‘you ain’t seen nothin’ till you’re down on the muffin.’”
• The song took on a second life in 1986, when the rap group Run-D.M.C. had a hit with a remake that featured Tyler and Perry, who also appeared in the video. Though Tyler and Perry were initially lukewarm to the idea, the song was a major part of Aerosmith’s comeback.
• Former Aerosmith manager Tim Collins said it took seven years for Aerosmith to get their royalties from Run-D.M.C.’s label, Profile Records.

FAST FORWARD:

• Perry left Aerosmith in 1979, with guitarist Brad Whitford leaving two years later. They rejoined in 1984, and the group has been intact ever since.
• Aerosmith has continued since then, with hit albums and singles, awards including Grammys, American Music Awards, MTV Music Awards, film and television appearances, and consecutive sold-out tours.
• Aerosmith was nominated for an Oscar in 1999 for their recording of “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing,” which was featured in the movie Armageddon.
• Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
• Following the murder of Run-D.M.C. DJ Jam Master Jay in October 2002, Aerosmith released a statement saying, “When we were down and out and in the depths, Jay and Run-D.M.C. came along and said, ‘Come play on our record.’ Run-D.M.C. and Jam Master Jay’s gift to the world was a new kind of music for a whole new generation, and their gift to us was a piece of ourselves back.”

Aerosmith continues to tour and record. In 2006, they released a new best-of collection titled Devil’s Got A New Disguise, which also had some new songs on it, and they went on tour with Motley Crue. That tour only came after Tyler recovered from surgery to correct problems in his throat and leg. The shows also featured David Hull on bass, because Hamilton was recovering from treatments for throat cancer and couldn’t travel.