20 Best Classic Rock Guitar Riffs Of All Time
6. Walk This Way - Aerosmith
After weeks of debauchery in New York City, Aerosmith had come through with what would be their breakthrough album with Toys in the Attic. Though songs like the title track and Sweet Emotion became iconic in the band's discography, the band still weren't convinced that they had the X-factor they needed for mainstream success.
Their major stumbling block came when Joe Perry came up with the catchiest riff the band had ever heard. The riff was crushing and moved with a certain boogie, but no one could figure out where the lyrics would fit in. Taking a break from the sessions, some of the band members went to the movies to see the Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein, where the hunchback says "Walk This Way."
Immediately inspired, Steven Tyler came back to the studio completely fired up and set out to write lyrics that told an adolescent tale of lust. The lyrics came so quick that Tyler even ended up writing the crux of them on the walls of the stairwell because he couldn't find any paper. With the song being both a hit for Aerosmith as well as for hip hop act Run-DMC, this riff has bent genres in a way that very few guitar parts have been able to accomplish.