Rock and roll has never consisted of perfect songs. The genre has produced some of the most memorable anthems of the modern era. However, the finished product must frequently be fixed to add a human element to the song rather than sounding robotically stiff. Joe Perry has always thrived on the live energy of working with Aerosmith. But he admits that one of their pop crossovers went too far in the opposite direction.
Then again, Perry rejoining Aerosmith in the early 1980s seemed like a pipe dream. After working on some of the band’s greatest material with frontman Steven Tyler, a massive fight between him and Tyler over his wife led to him quitting the group. It was after a massive stadium show, going on to form The Joe Perry Project in the next few years.
The band started to falter and Perry began to lose his battle with addiction. His next wife persuaded him to make amends with his writing partner. The group’s reunion album Done With Mirrors was not the comeback they had hoped for. But their collaboration with Run-DMC established them as one of the kings of hair metal, with songs like ‘Rag Doll‘ topping the charts.
As the band entered the 1990s, they established themselves as one of the biggest names in rock by shifting to ballads. It was with ‘Crazy‘ and ‘Cryin‘ becoming their most popular songs. Tyler began to have a terrible idea after the group created the Armageddon soundtrack anthem ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing‘.
For the next few albums, the band would spend their time chasing that kind of paycheck. It was with many of their songs having anthemic qualities that didn’t quite fit their bluesy aesthetic. The band worked their way through the next album, Just Push Play. But Perry refused to bend when it came time to record the song ‘Girls of Summer‘.
Included as a bonus track on the final version of the album, the song practically has the year 2001 pre-stamped. However, It sounded like a classic rock band trying their hardest to sound hip with the new kids on the block. It was like Britney Spears and *NSYNC. Tyler was the only one who was enthusiastic about the song. But Perry would have been content not to play it again.
In his memoir Rocks, Perry discussed how embarrassing it was to have to play the song, saying, “Steven became enamored of something called ‘Girls of Summer’. I put a guitar on it. However, a few overdubs do not change the essence of a song. I thought it was a waste of time and inappropriate for an Aerosmith record. I advised Steven to save it for a solo album. But he prevailed, and the song was recorded.”
By the time the group began the song’s promotional cycle, Perry had washed his hands of it. Only Tyler appeared in the accompanying video. However, The song marked the band’s most popular period. They spent the next few years reconnecting with their roots. They recorded Honkin’ On Bobo, a collection of blues covers from their early days. Every artist may try to draw on a variety of influences. But ‘Girls of Summer‘ marked the beginning of Aerosmith’s transition to a pop band.
