Craig Allen’s Fun Facts: ‘Dream On’

Steven Tyler...country music artist...who woulda thunk it?

Steven Tyler = Aerosmith!

"Dream On" is not only one of "Jersey's Favorite Hits," but it was Aerosmith's first Top 10 charting record, landing at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the Spring of 1976!

And this only happened when the song was re-released!

Oh...there's much more to this Aerosmith hit!

I'm just getting started...

"Dream On" was the band's first single... Aerosmith's manager arranged to have all the guys share a house, and concentrate on writing songs for their first album.

Steven Tyler had been working on what would become "Dream On" for about 6 years...writing it in bits and pieces.

He says the chord progression came from listening to his classically trained father play piano, when Steven was a small child...

The future hit's big breakthrough came when Tyler bought a keyboard...with money he found in a suitcase outside of where the band was staying!  Tyler didn't tell the guys in the band that he took the money...and when the bad guys showed up, looking for the cash...he payed dumb.

As to the meaning of "Dream On," Tyler says that its about the need to be someone..."Dream until your dreams come true." He adds that it also addresses some of the issues that an artist deals with when being a part of a new band.

Tyler is quoted online as saying of Dream On: It came out of "me playing the piano when I was about 17 or 18...it was just this little sonnet that I started playing one day. I never thought that it would end up being a real song."

And, its the song that saved the band!

Columbia Records was about to drop the band...as the debut album "Aerosmith" sold poorly. This was due, in part to the fact that the record label did not promote their new band's efforts...

...they were focused on promoting a debut album by another new artist...

Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce's first album was released one week before Aerosmith's first album hit record store shelves!

With being dropped looming...Aerosmith's management convinced the label to release "Dream On" as a single...the single edit of the song did very well in Aerosmith's hometown Boston...and charted nationally at #59 in the Fall of 1973.

Aerosmith remained with Columbia Records.

And would, eventually, be one of the label's biggest artists!

As I mentioned earlier, the song's re-release in late 1975....made it a Top-10 smash!

Two other "Fun Facts:"

Steven Tyler says that "Dream On" is the only song on that debut album where he uses his "real voice." Explaining that he felt insecure about the sound of his voice on tape...he lowered his voice a bit, on all the other songs!

And, as you now know, "Dream On" had been around a few years before it became a hit...twice.

Aerosmith first performed "Dream On" at the "Shaboo Inn" in Willimantic, Connecticut in November 1971...Tyler remembers that the band was paid $175 and a bottle of gin for the show...and that they had a hotel room for the night.

Rock 'n' Roll!