‘Dream On’ is a power ballad by Aerosmith from their 1973 self-titled debut album. Written by lead singer Steven Tyler, this song was their first major hit and became a classic rock radio staple. Released in June 1973, it initially peaked at number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song was not an immediate hit, but it took to the charts three years later after the band hit it big. In December 1975, after their single ‘You See Me Crying’ didn't chart, Aerosmith's manager David Krebs convinced Columbia Records to re-release ‘Dream On,’ and it went to #6. The album was reissued in 1987 and 1993, after their albums Permanent Vacation and Get A Grip exposed them to a new audience who had not heard their early work.
The album version of ‘Dream On’ was re-issued in late 1975, debuting at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 10, 1976, breaking into the top 40 on February 14 and peaking at number 6 on April 10. Columbia Records chose to service top 40 radio stations with both long and short versions of the song, thus many 1976 pop radio listeners were exposed to the group's first top 10 effort through the 45 edit.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song at number 172 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was moved to number 173 in 2010, and re-ranked at number 199 in 2021. In 2007, Aerosmith would perform a re-recording of the song, amongst some of their other songs, for the game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith as the master track was missing during the game's development. In 2018, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. On November 29, 2023, Dream On surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.
In a 2011 interview, Tyler reminisced about his father, a Juilliard-trained musician. He recalled lying beneath his dad's piano as a three-year-old listening to him play classical music. "That's where I got that Dream On chordage", he said. Lyrical composition was completed when Steven was 14 years old. The song is also famous for its building climax to showcase Tyler's trademark screams. In the authorized Stephen Davis band memoir Walk This Way, Tyler speaks at length about the origins of the songs: “The music for 'Dream On' was originally written on a Steinway upright piano in the living room of Trow-Rico Lodge in Sunapee, maybe four years before Aerosmith even started. I was seventeen or eighteen. ... It was just this little thing I was playing, and I never dreamed it would end up as a real song or anything. ... It's about dreaming until your dreams come true.”
This was the first single Aerosmith released. Their manager had them share a house and concentrate on writing songs for their first album. Steven Tyler had been working on the song on and off for about six years, writing it in bits and pieces. He was able to complete it with the help of the rest of the band. A breakthrough came when Tyler bought an RMI keyboard with money he found in a suitcase outside of where the band was staying. The "suitcase incident" became part of Aerosmith lore, as Tyler didn't tell his bandmates that he took the money, and when gangsters came looking for it, he continued to play dumb.
Label – Columbia
Songwriter – Steven Tyler
Producer – Adrian Barber
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Every time that I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It went by like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way?
Everybody's got their dues in life to pay, yeah
[Interlude]
I know nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
You got to lose to know how to win
[Verse 2]
Half my life's in books' written pages
Lived and learned from fools and from sages
You know it's true
All the feelings come back to you
[Chorus]
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
[Instrumental Break]
[Chorus]
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
[Bridge]
Dream on, dream on, dream on
Dream until your dreams come true
Dream on, dream on, dream on
Dream until your dreams come true
Dream on, dream on
Dream on, dream on
Dream on, dream on
Dream on, ah!
[Chorus]
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away