"Walk This Way" is a song by the American rockband Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the album Toys in the Attic (1975). It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1977, part of a string of successful hit singles for the band in the 1970s.
In 1986, the hip hop group Run-DMC covered "Walk This Way" in collaboration with Aerosmith, and it became a touchstone for the new musical subgenre of rap rock, or the melding of rock and hip hop.
This version of the song charted higher on the Billboard Hot 100 than the original, peaking at number 4, becoming Run-DMC's biggest hit. It was also the first hip hop single to reach the top five on the Billboard charts, as well as one of the first big hip hop singles in the UK, peaking at number 8. It won both groups a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Single in 1987. Raising Hell was nominated for a Grammy Award, making Run-DMC the first hip hop act to receive a nomination. In 2017, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".
Both versions of "Walk This Way" are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The 1986 video for "Walk This Way" symbolically places Aerosmith and Run-DMC in a musical duel in neighbouring studios before Steven Tyler literally breaks through the wall that separates them. The video segues to the bands' joint performance on stage. The highly popular result was the first hip hop hybrid video played in heavy rotation on MTV, and is regarded as a classic.
"Walk This Way" received a total of 68,3% yes votes!
Previous Aerosmith polls: #84 "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)".
Aerosmith - Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)
1997
This is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith from the band's 12th studio album, Nine Lives (1997).
Released as a single on February 11, 1997, the song topped the Spanish Singles Chart and reached number two in Canada for four weeks. It also topped the UK Rock Chart and the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Elsewhere, the track peaked at number four in the Czech Republic while reaching the top 10 in Finland and the top 30 in Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. On the US Billboard Hot 100, it reached number 35.