Let’s hear it for the Toys: Aerosmith’s blockbuster breakthrough turns 50
Jeff Jenkins
STACK Writer
In the midst of what singer Steven Tyler recalls was a spine-chilling, ball-freezing New York winter, Aerosmith began work on their third album, ‘Toys in the Attic’. It was released 50 years ago today.
The album sold a remarkable nine million copies in the US. “This was the year it all changed for us,” Tyler says. “The album got good reviews and people started taking us more seriously – about f-cking time!”
Here are 11 fun facts about Aerosmith’s Toys in the Attic…
Toys in the Attic had been a Broadway play and movie, but the band had no idea
“I came up with the title because of its obvious meanings,” Steven Tyler says. “And since people thought we were f-cking crazy anyway, what did it matter?” He was unaware of the 1960 Broadway play of the same name, which was turned into a 1963 movie starring Dean Martin. “Didn’t matter if I had been. This was Aerosmith’s Toys in the Attic – singular, sexy and psychosensational.”
Adam and Steve
Steven Tyler originally wanted to call the album Love at First Bite – after a line in the record’s third song, Adam’s Apple.
Young Frankenstein inspired the title of the album’s biggest hit
The album’s producer Jack Douglas was recounting a scene in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, where Marty Feldman’s character tells Gene Wilder to “walk this way”, limping. The band had their title.
Steven Tyler then wrote a song about a high school boy losing his virginity. He actually had to write the song twice – he left his original lyrics in the taxi when he arrived at the recording studio. He rewrote the words, scrawling them on the wall.
Tyler, the creator of the Walk This Way drumbeat
Before he became one of the great rock ’n’ roll frontmen, Steven Tyler was a drummer. “One of the things I’m most proud of is Walk This Way,” he stated in his ripping memoir Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?
“It’s very EGO and all, but even after you read the press about Run-DMC and Rick Rubin, I still think the song was a HIT in and of itself. And the proof of the pudding… ‘Backdoor lover always hiding ’neath the covers.’ You can’t sing that unless you’re a drummer or have some major sense of rhythm.”
Walk This Way made rap history
In 1986, producer Rick Rubin suggested that Run-DMC should remake Walk This Way. The hip-hop group was not familiar with the song. But their collaboration with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry became a bigger hit than the original, soaring to number four on the US charts – the first hip-hop song to reach the Billboard Top 5.
The Toxic Twins came up with the title track
When guitarist Joe Perry was playing a killer riff, Steven Tyler started yelling, “Toys! Toys! Toys!”. Tyler and Perry became known as the Toxic Twins. “Joe’s been my inspiration on more songs than I could ever tell him. Sometimes, just his presence in the room is enough to inspire lyrics to the greatest melody.”
Steven Tyler didn’t dig Joe Perry’s girlfriend
When Joe Perry announced he was moving out to live with his girlfriend, Steven Tyler was devastated. “I was angry at Elyssa because she stole my boyfriend, my significant other, my partner in crime!”.
Tyler took his anger and jealousy and wrote Sweet Emotion, which became the album’s first single. “Looking back, I’m actually grateful that Joe moved out with Elyssa. It gave me something to sing about, a bittersweet emotion.”
An orphanage inspired the second track
Steven Tyler says he was thinking about an orphanage when he came up with the lyrics to Uncle Salty. He wanted to “make the melody weep from the sadness felt when a child is abandoned”.
Tyler sings: “Uncle Salty told me stories of a lonely baby with a lonely kind of life to lead/ Her mammy was lusted, Daddy he was busted/ They left her to be trusted till the orphan bleeds.”
Cover me
Toys in the Attic features one cover – the band’s version of Big Ten-Inch Record, which was originally recorded by American R&B singer Bull Moose Jackson in 1952.
A Crying shame
The final track on the album, You See Me Crying, was a big piano ballad. It was Aerosmith’s most ambitious recording, featuring a symphony orchestra. It became the album’s third and final single but failed to chart.
It’s a classic
Toys in the Attic stalled at number 79 on the Australian charts. But it’s one for the ages. “This record will be played long after you’re dead,” Steven Tyler proclaims. “Our records would be up there in the attic, too, with the things that you loved and never wanted to forget.”
Let's play!
^Discounts apply to previous ticketed/advertised price prior to the discount offer. As we negotiate, products will likely have been sold below ticketed/advertised price prior to the discount offer. Prices may differ at airport stores.
