Aerosmith

At the beginning of the 1990s, Aerosmith were celebrating a high point in their career. In the wake of 1987's Permanent Vacation, which had gone 5 x platinum and spawned the Top 20 singles Dude (Looks Like A Lady), Rag Doll and Angel, their 1989 follow up Pump was an even greater success. With four hit singles, all on heavy rotation at MTV, Pump was certified 7 x Platinum in the U.S. alone, and earned Aerosmith their first Grammy award for the song Janie Got A Gun. In addition, Janie also received two MTV Video Music Awards, and is still regularly featured in lists of all-time great videos. In support of the album, the group embarked on the year-long Pump Tour, which saw Aerosmith play 166 shows across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Where Permanent Vacation seemed a little overwhelmed by its pop concessions, Pump revels in them without ever losing sight of Aerosmith's dirty hard rock core. Which doesn't mean the record is a sellout – "What It Takes" has more emotion and grit than any of their other power ballads; "Janie's Got a Gun" tackles more complex territory than most previous songs; and "The Other Side" and "Love in an Elevator" rock relentlessly, no matter how many horns and synths fight with the guitars. Such ambition and successful musical eclecticism make Pump rank with Rocks and Toys in the Attic.

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits remains one of the most popular and enduring best-of collections by any rock band, selling nearly ten million copies in the U.S. alone since its release…

Out of all Aerosmith's live albums released over the years (Live Bootleg, Classics Live! Vol. 2, etc.), 1986's Classics Live! is the least effective. The main reason it doesn't meet the high standards of their other in-concert releases is simple – the band had little input in deciding the song selections and performances – plus, it was released by their then-former label, Columbia, to cash in on the newly re-formed band's reunion tour…

When Aerosmith got wind that their then-former record label, Columbia, was going to release a follow-up to the lifeless Classics Live!, the band wisely decided to get more involved this time around. The result is arguably the band's finest live album, even though it may be a bit short (not even 39 minutes in length)…

Aerosmith prove that a band can be inspired by the blues and play the blues without ever feeling like a blues band. Then again, the nature of the blues is that every musician who plays it stamps his or her own identity on a set of familiar chord changes and songs. While it might not feel like the blues, Aerosmith do indeed stamp their identity on each track on their long-promised blues album, the atrociously named Honkin' on Bobo. Other rockers who have cut full-length blues albums have always played the music with a kind of scholarly reverence, taking care to pay tribute to their influences. Not Aerosmith.