The mighty Aerosmith needs no introduction, but there is a
deep track on their massively successful album, “Get A Grip” that deserves
highlighting.
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| “Get A Grip” became Aerosmith’s first #1 album in 1993. Despite the grunge takeover, this traditional rock record spawned four top 40 singles and went platinum 7 times. |
Aerosmith was one of the few classic rock bands that sustained
a string of hits during the 90s after grunge put most glam/hair band/hard rock
bands to bed. The four singles released from “Get A Grip” that hit the
Billboard Top 100 were all power ballads and doctored by hit-makers who knew
how to make something radio-friendly.
The strategy worked well, but as a consequence there are
some great rockers on “Get A Grip” that went overlooked. One of the best is
“Fever”, a rousing rocker in the finest Aerosmith tradition that needed no
tweaking by so-called “song doctors”.
In a rather unexpected move, country superstar Garth Brooks
later covered this Aerosmith tune as “The Fever”, with altered lyrics. In an
even more unexpected move, Steven Tyler will be releasing a country album this
year.
Despite the album’s success, and the many others in
Aerosmith’s impressive catalogue, the band never hit #1 on the singles chart
until 1998 with “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, written by Diane Warren for the
Bruce Willis movie “Armageddon”. Incidentally,
Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv co-starred in this movie.
