Via Ultimate Classic Rock. The early eighties had not been kind to Aerosmith. The albums, "Rock In A Hard Place" and "Done With Mirrors" weren't greeted with the enthusiasm of their releases of the seventies. Meanwhile, Run-D.M.C's career was on an upward trajectory when their producer Rick Rubin suggested they do their own version of the Aerosmith hit "Walk This Way". They weren't exactly thrilled with the idea, Darrel "DMC" McDaniels said Steven Tyler's vocals sounded like, "hillbilly gibberish", but they recorded what they admitted was a weak version to appease their producer.
McDaniels says, "Eight hours later, we get a call to come back to the studio. We walk in, and Joe Perry is playing his riff, Steven Tyler is in the booth doing the lyrics. Me and Run knew we had to step our game up. Jay was like, ‘Yo, don’t think of the record as 'Steven Tyler and Joe Perry’s record,' think of those lyrics as Run-D.M.C. lyrics.' So we went in the booth and that went so good that Steven said, ‘Yo, let me get in with y’all'.”
That song not only shot to the top of the charts, it gave Aerosmith a huge boost going into their 1987 album "Permanent Vacation".