Aerosmith - Aerosmith

While not their strongest recording, Aerosmith's self-titled debut gave a taste of the musical path that the band, and much of the rest of hard rock, was to follow for the rest of the 1970s and well into the 1980s. Although the awkward social commentary of "Movin' Out" and the swinging cover of Rufus Thomas's "Walking the Dog" have largely been forgotten, two standards emerged from Aerosmith: "Dream On," a prototypical power ballad with its keyboards and string arrangement, and "Mama Kin," which contains one of the most recognizable riffs in hard-rock history. Though Aerosmith would record better albums--both before and after their drug-induced implosion--their debut serves as a kind of road map to much of post-'60s rock & roll. --Genevieve Williams