Aerosmith: Dream On

Did you miss me? I took a few days off this week as it has been a busy one, but hopefully I am back for a few days without a break. Being that it is Thursday, it’s time for our Thursday Repeats and Threepeats feature. Originally released as Aerosmith’s third single in June 1973, “Dream On” was a local hit in Boston and other cities in New England; however, it failed to generate a great deal of national interest.

The original single, which clocked in at 3:25, peaked in ’73 at #59. After a string of non-charting singles but success in Album Oriented Rock radio, Aerosmith began to get some mainstream attention in 1975 when “Sweet Emotion” placed at #36 on the Billboard charts. In 1976, Columbia reissued “Dream On” as the full length album version at 4:28. My friend John Sellards informed me that the promo version of the single had both the 4:28 and 3:25 versions as options for radio play. 

While the first issue of the single listed an intro time of :13, the reissue has the intro designated as :00 – indicating that on the second issue of the single that Columbia intended that the song’s beginning be played without announcer interruption. I wonder how many stations did that. I’m sure many stations took advantage of a good portion of the :38 intro; however, the first :13 seconds as in the original edit would have sufficed most front selling of the tune.

Sometimes waiting is best. The second issue of “Dream On” peaked in 1976 at #6. To take advantage of the recent popularity of the single, Columbia reissued the debut Aerosmith LP with the addition wording of “Featuring ‘Dream On’” on the cover. Vocalist Steven Tyler played the piano on the cut.

1973 Single Edit

Having not heard the original edit for several decades, I hadn’t remembered how this version sounded. It appears that, not only was it chopped; it had a slightly different mix as well.