*****

By the Spring of 1975, Boston Hard Rock Band Aerosmith had already released two fantastic LPs filled with lip-smacking sexual innuendos, fantastic stereo riffing from guitarists Brad Whitford and Joe Perry, and a caffeinated energy from frontman Steven Tyler. But nothing they had accomplished in their first few years as a commercially successful Rock band (or ever again in their over four-decade career) could match the success Toys in the Attic garnered. At 8 million copies sold in the U.S. alone, Toys is Aerosmith at their most radio friendly featuring two timeless classics in “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” that I guarantee the band has still never skipped once at a concert to this day. But it’s the rest of the album that strengthens its appeal to the more hardcore Aerosmith fans with white knuckle Rockers like “Toys in the Attic,” the groovy “No More No More,” and the effortlessly Bluesy “Adam’s Apple.” But the best song on the LP is the album’s closer, “You See Me Crying,” a piano-led ballad that began an Aerosmith tradition of ending their albums with tear-jerkers (a tradition that still exists today). Many critics and fans deride these tracks, but “You See Me Crying’s” originality is it’s strength as it arrived at a time in Aerosmith’s career when this kind of song was brand new. Tyler’s show-stealing Janis Joplin impersonation induces goosebumps, the production featuring strings, the afore-mentioned piano track, and, of course, Joe Perry’s fantastic melodic stirrings is top shelf, and the message of putting on a strong face despite an internal deep-seated pain is a subject the band never really broached again making this track feel unique. After more than 40 years and 15 albums, they’ve rarely ever topped it.