Run-D.M.C. charted with its remake of “Walk This Way”

Walk This Way Aerosmith

Writer(s): Steven Tyler, Joe Perry (see lyrics here) Released: August 28, 1975 First Charted: November 20, 1976 Peak: 10 US, 7 CB, 5 HR, 5 RR, 1 CL, 7 CN, 85 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.2 UK, 0.2 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 29.52 video, -- streaming

Awards for Aerosmith version: Click on award for more details.

Walk This Way Run-D.M.C. with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler & Joe Perry

Released: July 4, 1986 First Charted: July 26, 1986 Peak: 4 US, 9 CB, 10 RR, 8 RB, 8 UK, 7 CN, 9 AU, 4 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.4 UK, 1.45 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 94.8 video, 651.47 streaming

Awards for Run-DMC version: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Walk This Way,” about a high schooler losing his virginity, was sung at a fast speed with emphasis on rhyming. The title was inspired by a line in the Mel Brooks’ movie Young Frankenstein. WK While initially released as the second single for Aeromsith’s 1975 album Toys in the Attic, the song didn’t become a hit until after two singles from fourth album, 1976’s Rocks, charted. Then the late-1976 reissue climbed to #10 in the U.S. and established “Walk This Way” as one of Aerosmith’s signature songs and a staple of classic rock radio. A decade later, Aerosmith had fallen on hard times, unraveled by drug and alcohol problems. An attempted comeback with 1985’s Done with Mirrors did little to regenerate interest. However, a New York-based rap group would revive the song – and Aerosmith’s career. DJ Jam Master Jay of Run-D.M.C. frequently cut back and forth between two copies of “Walk This Way” to allow MC’s Run and DMC to add rhymes to the instrumental. When the trio started work on their Raising Hell album, producer Rick Rubin – a fan of metal and rock – suggested they remake the song. The resulting cover is often credited as breaking rap into the mainstream, as it was the first rap song to hit the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. WK The song was instrumental not only in introducing rock into rap music, but opened the possibilities for non-rap acts to include the genre in their music. The song also put Aerosmith back in the spotlight, not just because the band had been covered, but because singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry participated in the remake. “Perry acquitted himself quite well, as usual, and Tyler’s snotty snarl prospered in the hip-hop context.” DM The pair also appeared in the classic video which pitted them against Run-D.M.C. as neighbors trying to out-blast each other. By the video’s end, they all perform together on stage. Resources: DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Page 566. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/6/2012; last updated 6/18/2023.

Run-D.M.C. released Raising Hell

Raising Hell Run-D.M.C.

Released: May 27, 1986 Peak: 3 US, 17 RB, 41 UK, 32 CN, 50 AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.6 UK Genre: rap

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Peter Piper [3:25] It’s Tricky [3:03] (2/8/87, 57 US, 21 RB) My Adidas [2:47] (5/17/86, 5 RB) Walk This Way (with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler & Joe Perry) [5:11] (7/4/86, 4 US, 8 RB, 8 UK, gold single) Is It Live? [3:07] Perfection [2:52] Hit It Run [3:10] Raising Hell [5:22] You Be Illin’ [3:26] (10/21/86, 29 US, 12 RB, 42 UK) Dumb Girl [3:31] Son of Byford [0:27] Proud to Be Black [3:15] Total Running Time: 39:46

Rating: 4.435 out of 5.00 (average of 13 ratings) Quotable: “Rap’s first masterpiece” – Josh Tyrangiel/ Alan Light, Time magazine Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Darryl McDaniels, Jam Master Jay and the Reverend Run wore black leather suits, gold chains and Adidas with no laces. They looked like drug dealers, and plenty of people thought they were. In reality, they were middle class kids from Queens desperate to become rock stars, and Raising Hell was their defining statement.” TL “Run-D.M.C. were primed for a breakthrough into the mainstream, but nobody was prepared for a blockbuster on the level of Raising Hell. [Their first two albums] – Run-D.M.C. and King of Rock – had established the crew’s fusion of hip-hop and hard rock, but that sound didn't blossom until Raising Hell, partially due to the presence of Rick Rubin as producer. Rubin loved metal and rap in equal measures and he knew how to play to the strengths of both, while slipping in commercial concessions that seemed sly even when they borrowed from songs as familiar as ‘My Sharona’ (heard on It’s Tricky).” AMG “Along with longtime Run-D.M.C. producer Russell Simmons, Rubin blew down the doors of what hip-hop could do with Raising Hell because it reached beyond rap-rock and found all sorts of sounds outside of it. Sonically, there is simply more going on in this album than any previous rap record – more hooks, more drum loops (courtesy of ace drum programmer Sam Sever), more scratching, more riffs, more of everything. Where other rap records, including Run-D.M.C.’s, were all about the rhythm, this is layered with sounds and ideas, giving the music a tangible flow.” AMG “They opened with Peter Piper (‘Now Peter Piper picked peppers, but Run rapped rhymes/ Humpty Dumpty fell down, that's his hard time’) to show off their spitting speed, followed it with ‘It's Tricky’ to prove their ferocity, My Adidas to test their promotional skills and ‘Walk This Way’…to show off their catholic tastes. And those are just the first four tracks.” TL “But the brilliance of this record is that even with this increased musical depth, it still rocks as hard as hell, and in a manner that brought in a new audience. Of course, the cover of Aerosmith’s Walk This Way, complete with that band’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, helped matters considerably, since it gave an audience unfamiliar with rap an entry point.” AMG It was, after all, “the first rock-rap collaboration to hit the Top 10.” TL However, “if it were just a novelty record, a one-shot fusion of rap and rock, Raising Hell would never have sold three million copies. No, the music was fully realized and thoroughly invigorating, rocking harder and better than any of its rock or rap peers in 1986, and years later, that sense of excitement is still palpable on this towering success story for rap in general and Run-D.M.C. in specific.” AMG “Raising Hell is rap’s first masterpiece, and it’s just as audacious now as it was two decades ago.” TL

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Run-D.M.C. DMDB encyclopedia entry for Rick Rubin AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine TL Time magazine (11/13/06). “ All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light WK Wikipedia First posted 4/15/2008; last updated 12/5/2021.