Aerosmith made a stunning comeback in the late ’80s, rising from the has-been bin to once again stake their claim as one of the world’s finest rock bands. They were so hot that even stylistic detours like the tear-in-your-beer ballad “What It Takes” delivered the goods.
What is the song about? What ace co-writer helped to bring it to life? And how did Aerosmith pull it ever so slightly back from its country roots so that it would suit them to a tee? Here are all the details about “What It Takes,” one of the finest weepers from Boston’s bad boys.
Finding Their Footing
In the first half of the ’80s, Aerosmith appeared to be poster children for the malaise that struck a bunch of their classic rock peers at that time. When the music business changed almost overnight thanks to the influence of MTV and the second British Invasion stirred up by the New Romantics like Duran Duran, Aerosmith’s style of music fell out of fashion.
It didn’t help that the band were enduring all kinds of infighting and personal problems at that time. Their first two albums of the decade didn’t crack the Top 30 in the U.S., and individual songs from those records were non-starters on radio. Most at that time wouldn’t have predicted an Aerosmith comeback was in the offing.
But the band got focused again, received a boost from their unlikely collaboration with Run-D.M.C. on “Walk This Way,” embraced videos, and changed their sound to make it a tad more pop-friendly. Their 1987 album Permanent Vacation benefited from all that and once again returned them to the limelight. But could they follow it up?
