Big Ones (1994)
1.Walk on Water
2.Love in an Elevator
3.Rag Doll
4.What it Takes
5.Dude (Looks Like a Lady)
6.Janie's Got a Gun
7.Cryin'
8.Amazing
9.Blind Man
10.Deuces are Wild
11.The Other Side
12.Crazy
13.Eat the Rich
14.Angel
15.Livin' on the Edge
Emerging as a shrewd retrospective move rather than an artistic venture, Big Ones represents Geffen Records’ calculated yet effective encapsulation of Aerosmith’s commercially resurgent years. With the band preparing to exit the label, this 1994 compilation showcases the fruits of their late-80s and early-90s comeback, drawing heavily from three albums—Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip—while pointedly omitting Done with Mirrors, a record often dismissed as transitional and uninspired.
The strength of this compilation lies in its clarity of purpose: to serve as both a greatest hits package and a reaffirmation of Aerosmith's mainstream relevance. The inclusion of two then-new tracks—Blind Man and Walk on Water—as well as Deuces Are Wild (previously relegated to the Beavis and Butt-head Experience soundtrack), reveals the band still capable of crafting accessible, radio-friendly material, albeit firmly within the commercial framework that defined their Geffen era.
Critics might dismiss this period in Aerosmith’s catalog as overly polished, arguing that the rawness of their ‘70s heyday had long since been traded for glossy hooks and MTV-ready sheen. And yet, to reduce Big Ones to a mere marketing maneuver misses the point. These are expertly engineered rock songs, built for maximum impact and mass appeal. Tracks like Love in an Elevator, Cryin’, and Janie’s Got a Gun possess a sonic confidence and lyrical flamboyance that, while bordering on melodrama, never quite tip into parody.
What Big Ones lacks in surprise, it compensates for in cohesion and crowd-pleasing certainty. This is Aerosmith as stadium veterans—swaggering, unrepentantly commercial, and still remarkably vital. Not a document of artistic risk, but of hard-won popularity and pop-metal mastery.