Aerosmith – “What It Takes” Live
So Baby, What’s The Story?
“What It Takes” was penned by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Desmond Child. It’s about knowing what it takes to get over a girl after break-up. It was released as a third single from the album, “Pump.” Every time they perform this track live, the first verse will be sung as a cappella before belting out his signature distinctive scream.
When they started putting it together, is sounded like a lovelorn, twangy Country song, which they remedied by adding electric guitars.
- It was released on February 27, 1990 under Geffen Records.
- Peaked at number 9 in the US Billboard Hot 100
- Ranked number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart
The song also contains lyrics in reference to the other tracks by the band. This is quite common for them to do the references.
The song contained numerous references to other Aerosmith songs in its lyrics. Tyler spells “F.I.N.E.” in the second verse and mentions that his “heart’s been doing time” (“Heart’s Done Time”). Another lyric, “leave your life to the toss of the dice,” relates to the “Love in an Elevator” lyric, “betting on the dice I’m tossing.” The song contains other, smaller references.
Though there were two videos released for this song, the one that received heavy airplay was the one which featured scenes from their documentary film, “The Making of Pump.” Nevertheless, both videos were really good!
