Maps of Music

Toys in the Attic (1975)

Where the lyrics of Toys in the Attic take you, and where it was really made.

The album that made Aerosmith's name in the United States sold nine million copies, yet it was mixed on release and its best-known song was almost lost to a lost set of lyrics.

Key places

Where the sessions began (1975)

Recording site The Record Plant — The band started working at The Record Plant in New York City at the beginning of 1975. The sessions for this album were produced by Douglas without Colcord and recorded to 16 tracks. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Toys in the Attic: third studio album by American rock band Aerosmith
• Released April 8, 1975 by Columbia Records
• First single Sweet Emotion released May 19, 1975
• Original version of Walk This Way followed on August 28, 1975
• The band's most commercially successful studio LP in the United States
• Nine million copies sold according to the RIAA
• Title track and Walk This Way are on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll

Background

• For the previous album, Get Your Wings, the band began working with producer Jack Douglas
• Douglas co-produced Get Your Wings with Ray Colcord
• The band had played Get Your Wings on the road for a year before the third album
• Guitarist Joe Perry said the band's confidence was built up from constant touring
• Perry said the first two albums were mostly songs played for years live in clubs
• Perry said the band started from scratch on Toys in the Attic

Recording

• At the beginning of 1975, the band started working at The Record Plant in New York City
• Sessions were produced by Douglas without Colcord
• Engineer Jay Messina, with assistants Rod O'Brien, Corky Stasiak and Dave Thoener
• Recorded to a 16-track tape recorder
• The band entered the sessions with just three or four songs and wrote most of the material while recording
• Pre-production rehearsals lasted at least two months

Cover

• Steven Tyler's original cover idea was a teddy bear sitting in an attic
• The final cover put all the animals back in place

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Boston in 1970 by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, and Brad Whitford after the Jam Band and Chain Reaction merged.
• The name was suggested by Joey Kramer, who had seen the word "aerosmith" in his school notebooks.
• Their first gig was at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts, on November 6, 1970.

Members

• Current lineup: Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry and Brad Whitford (guitars), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums).
• Perry and Whitford left in 1979 and 1981 and returned in 1984; the original five were reunited from 1984 onward.
• Tyler and Perry are the main songwriting team, nicknamed the "Toxic Twins".

Career

• Debut album in 1973 and Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976) established their blues-based hard rock sound.
• The 1986 Run-D.M.C. collaboration on "Walk This Way" revived their career, followed by Permanent Vacation (1987), Pump (1989), and Get a Grip (1993).
• "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (1998) was their only Billboard Hot 100 number one.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001; sold more than 150 million records worldwide.
• Retired from touring in 2024 after Tyler's vocal injury; released the EP One More Time with Yungblud in 2025.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone's Gordon Fletcher compared the album unfavourably to Get Your Wings
• Fletcher criticised Douglas's production
• Fletcher wrote that despite good moments the band did not avoid directionless meandering and downright weak material
• Robert Christgau was more positive and remarked on the progress Aerosmith had made in a short time
• Greg Kot called the album a landmark of hard rock

Reappraisal

• AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine remarked how Aerosmith finally perfected their mix of Stonesy raunch and Zeppelin-esque riffing
• Erlewine credited an increased sense of songwriting skills and purpose
• Blender's Ben Mitchell found Aerosmith firing on all coke-clogged cylinders and lauded all the songs
• Mitchell called the arrangement of the closing ballad a typical 70s rock extravagance
• Martin Popoff noted the variety of styles on the album and the funk metal riffs of Walk This Way
• In 2024 Loudwire staff elected it the best hard rock album of 1975

Records

• Peaked at No. 11 on the US Billboard 200, 63 positions higher than Get Your Wings
• Sweet Emotion reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975
• Walk This Way reached No. 10 on the Hot 100 in 1977
• Ranked No. 228 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• Nine million copies sold according to the RIAA
• The 1986 Run-DMC cover of Walk This Way helped revive the band's flagging career

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title came from the phrase bats in the belfry, used by Lillian Hellman in 1959, both expressions meaning a state of mental confusion
• Big Ten Inch Record was composed by Fred Weismantel in 1952 and was originally recorded by Bullmoose Jackson
• Tyler wrote the Walk This Way lyrics at the hotel, but left them in a cab on the way to the studio the next morning

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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