Run DMC - Aerosmith - Walk This Way

Each program in this series puts the spotlight on the songs that have left an indelible mark on the world. Besides setting the scene for the release of the song, the programs feature the songs´ creator(s) and explore its cultural impact and the ways that it changed the course of history. Guests include artists, music industry executives, cultural and political pundits and the music fans themselves for whom these songs became their life´s soundtrack.

By any definition, Walk This Way, written by Aerosmith´s Steve Tyler and Joe Perry, was your classic rock track. With its hooky guitar riffs and brazen, in-your-face vocal delivery, in the mid ´70s, it was the song that set Aerosmith on the road to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; but little could the group have known that it would have a second life a decade later. On its release in 1986, Walk This Way became the original rap/heavy metal video crossover song. Run-DMC was the bridge between old-school artists like Grandmaster Flash and the modern rap era.