Leslie T related the story on her afternoon show at 101 Gold.
Aerosmith’s song Walk This Way was inspired by a scene in the 1974 film Young Frankenstein. The band was stuck writing the song’s lyrics when they decided to take a break and watch the movie. In the film, the character Igor, played by Marty Feldman, says “Walk this way” while mimicking a limp. This moment sparked the idea for the title and lyrics, leading to the creation of one of Aerosmith’s biggest hits.
In 2014, Joe Perry, the band’s lead guitarist, said: “Halfway through recording our Toys in the Attic album in early ’75 at New York’s Record Plant, we were stuck. Writing was a long, tough process for us in those days.
“Our first two albums were mostly songs we had played at clubs. For ‘Toys,’ we had written three or four songs and then had to write the rest in the studio. We decided to try the song I had come up with in Hawaii, but we didn’t have lyrics or a title yet. We took a break.
“Steven, Joey, Tom [Hamilton], Brad [Whitford] and [producer] Jack [Douglas] went down to Times Square to see Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, which was in theaters then. I had already seen it, so I stayed behind and hung out on the roof. When the guys returned, they were throwing lines back and forth from the film.
“They were laughing about Marty Feldman greeting Gene Wilder at the door of the castle and telling him to follow him. “Walk this way,” he says, limping, giving his stick to Wilder so he can walk that way, too. While all this was going on, Jack stopped and said, ‘Hey, ‘walk this way’ might be a great title for the song.’ We agreed.”