Aerosmith is the band featured most often in the Guitar Hero series. They are featured in Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, Guitar Hero 3 as downloadable track, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and have their own game, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Every one of the band's long term members is featured in the game, and Joe Perry is a playable guitarist.
Line up[]
Current members[]
- Steven Tyler - lead vocals (since 1970)
- Joe Perry - guitar, backing vocals (1970-1979, since 1984)
- Brad Whitford - guitar (1971-1981, since 1984)
- Tom Hamilton - bass (since 1970)
- Joey Kramer - drums, percussion (since 1970)
Past members[]
- Ray Tabano - guitar (1970-1971)
- Jimmy Crespo - guitar, backing vocals (1979-1984)
- Rick Dufay - guitar (1981-1984)
Discography[]
Studio albums[]
The linked titles are songs featured in the series. The track listings do not include bonus tracks.
- Aerosmith (1973)
- Track listing: "Make It", "Somebody", "Dream On", "One Way Street", "Mama Kin", "Write Me a Letter", "Movin' Out" and "Walkin' the Dog".
- Get Your Wings (1974)
- Track listing: "Same Old Song and Dance", "Lord of the Thighs", "Spaced", "Woman of the World", "S.O.S. (Too Bad)", "Train Kept A-Rollin'", "Seasons of Wither" and "Pandora's Box".
- Toys in the Attic (1975)
- Track listing: "Toys in the Attic", "Uncle Salty", "Adam's Apple", "Walk This Way", "Big Ten Inch Record", "Sweet Emotion", "No More No More", "Round and Round" and "You See Me Crying".
- Rocks (1976)
- Track listing: "Back in the Saddle", "Last Child", "Rats in the Cellar", "Combination", "Sick as a Dog", "Nobody's Fault", "Get the Lead Out", "Lick and a Promise" and "Home Tonight".
- Draw the Line (1977)
- Track listing: "Draw the Line", "I Wanna Know Why", "Critical Mass", "Get It Up", "Bright Light Fright", "Kings and Queens", "The Hand That Feeds", "Sight for Sore Eyes" and "Milk Cow Blues".
- Night on the Ruts (1979)
- Track listing: "No Surprize", "Chiquita", "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" (cover of the Shangri-Las), "Cheese Cake", "Three Mile Smile", "Reefer Head Woman", "Bone to Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy)", "Think About It" and "Mia".
- Rock in a Hard Place (1982)
- This was the only album recorded during the period Perry and Whitford left the band, with Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay replacing them.
- Track listing: "Jailbait", "Lightning Strikes", "Bitch's Brew", "Bolivian Ragamuffin", "Cry Me a River", "Prelude to Joanie", "Joanie's Butterfly", "Rock in a Hard Place (Cheshire Cat)", "Jig Is Up" and "Push Comes to Shove".
- Done With Mirors (1985)
- Track listing: "Let the Music Do the Talking", "My Fist Your Face", "Shame on You", "The Reason a Dog", "Shela", "Gypsy Boots", "She's on Fire", "The Hop" and "Darkness".
- Permanent Vacation (1987)
- Track listing: "Heart's Done Time", "Magic Touch", "Rag Doll", "Simoriah", "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "St. John", "Hangman Jury", "Girl Keeps Coming Apart", "Angel", "Permanent Vacation", "I'm Down" and "The Movie".
- Pump (1989)
- Track listing: "Young Lust", "F.I.N.E.*", "Love in an Elevator", "Monkey on My Back", "Janie's Got a Gun", "The Other Side", "My Girl", "Don't Get Mad, Get Even", "Voodoo Medicine Man" and "What It Takes".
- Get a Grip (1993)
- Track listing: "Eat the Rich", "Get a Grip", "Fever", "Livin' on the Edge", "Flesh", "Walk on Down", "Shut Up and Dance", "Cryin'", "Gotta Love It", "Crazy", "Line Up", "Amazing" and "Boogie Man".
- Nine Lives (1997)
- Track listing: "Nine Lives", "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)", "Hole in My Soul", "Taste of India", "Full Circle", "Something's Gotta Give", "Ain't That a Bitch", "The Farm", "Crash", "Kiss Your Past Good-Bye", "Pink", "Attitude Adjustment" and "Fallen Angels".
- Just Push Play (2001)
- Track listing: "Beyond Beautiful", "Just Push Play", "Jaded", "Fly Away from Here", "Trip Hoppin'", "Sunshine", "Under My Skin", "Luv Lies", "Outta Your Head", "Drop Dead Gorgeous", "Light Inside" and "Avant Garden".
- Honkin' on Bobo (2004)
- This album is made up of covers of blues standard songs (except for "The Grind"), as the style was a prime influence on the band.
- Track listing: "Road Runner", "Shame, Shame, Shame", "Eyesight to the Blind", "Baby, Please Don't Go", "Never Loved a Girl", "Back Back Train", "You Gotta Move", "The Grind", "I'm Ready", "Temperature", "Stop Messin' Around" and "Jesus Is on the Main Line".
- Music from Another Dimension! (2012)
- Track listing: "LUV XXX", "Oh Yeah", "Beautiful", "Tell Me", "Out Go the Lights", "Legendary Child", "What Could Have Been Love", "Street Jesus", "Can't Stop Lovin' You", "Lover Alot", "We All Fall Down", "Freedom Fighter", "Closer", "Something" and "Another Last Goodbye".
Live albums[]
- Live Bootleg (1978)
- Classics Live! (1986)
- Classics Live! II (1987)
- A Little South of Sanity (1998)
- You Gotta Move (2004)
- Rockin' the Joint: Live at the Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas (2005)
Compilation albums[]
- Greatest Hits (1980)
- Gems (1988)
- Pandora's Box (1991)
- Big Ones (1994)
- Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology (2001)
- O, Yeah! The Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (2002)
- Devil's Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith (2006)
Band History[]
Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton were in a band together what was simply called "The Jam Band". While in the band, Joe Perry met Steven Tyler, who was on vacation at the time. Hamilton and Perry then moved to Boston, where they met Joey Kramer, who would later become the drummer for Aerosmith. They met up with Steven Tyler (who was an acquaintance of Kramer) in October of 1970 and, completing the formation with rhythm guitarist Ray Tabano (who would be replaced with Brad Whitford the following year), Aerosmith was born.
The band became locally successful after doing several live performances. In 1973, they released their first album, Aerosmith. The highest charting single was "Dream On", which peaked at number 59. In 1974, they released Get Your Wings. This album featured "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and "Same Old Song and Dance." In 1975, Aerosmith released Toys in the Attic, which was their best selling album and their most highly regarded. "Sweet Emotion" was the highest charting single, followed by the re-released "Dream On".
In 1976, Rocks was released, which featured "Last Child" and was considered on par with Toys in the Attic. The next album, Draw the Line, was not as critically acclaimed as the two previous albums, but the song Draw the Line was a small hit. In 1978, the live album, Live! Bootleg was released.
After the 1979 release of Night in the Ruts, Joe Perry left the band, being replaced by Jimmy Crespo. A few years later, Brad Whitford, too, left the band, his replacement being Rick Dufay. In 1982, Rock in a Hard Place (the only album recorded by the band with Crespo and Dufay on guitars) was released. It was considered a commercial failure and failed to produce a hit single.
In 1984, both Joe Perry and Brad Whitford were accepted back into the band. In 1985, the band released the album, Done With Mirrors, which only went gold. In 1986, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler appeared in Run D.M.C's cover of Walk This Way, marking their true comeback. By the mid 1980s, heavy drug use had caught up with the band, and they all attended drug rehabilitation.
In 1987, Permanent Vacation was released, with the hit single, "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)". In 1989, Pump was released, featuring "Janie's Got a Gun" and "Love in an Elevator". The Pump Tour lasted most of 1990.
After a short break, the band went to work on their follow up to Pump, Get a Grip. It was their first album to debut at #1. It went on to sell over 7 million copies. After firing their manager in the mid-nineties, the band released Nine Lives in 1997. The album was less successful than the two previous albums. In 1998, they released their only #1 single to date: "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", whose success was propelled by its inclusion in the soundtrack of one of that year's blockbuster movies, Armageddon, which starred Steven's daughter Liv Tyler, along with Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck.
Aerosmith had starred in two other video games before their own Guitar Hero version in the mid-90's: Midway's 1994 rail-gun shooter Revolution X (much maligned in the medium merely due to its subpar home ports), in which the player is helped by the band in confronting a despotic paramilitary organization called NON, and Virtual Music's 1995 musical game Quest for Fame in which, much like the GH series, the player is a budding rock guitarist working his way to become a rockstar. This game, instead of a guitar controller, used as its peripheral simply a pick, which the player had to strum across any object that could simulate a guitar, like a tennis racket.
In 1999, at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster opened to the public. During the ride, Aerosmith music plays continuously.
In 2001, the band performed in the half time show of the super bowl. This was used as a venue for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. In the same year, the band's 13th studio album was released, Just Push Play. The single "Jaded" made it to the top ten.
The long-awaited blues ablum, Honkin' on Bobo was released in 2004. This was considered as the band "returning to their roots." The band is currently working on a new album, having just finished the work on Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.