“Angel” by Aerosmith

Aerosmith went straight for the heartstrings on "Angel", a power ballad Steven Tyler wrote with professional song doctor Desmond Child. It was the third track pulled from Permanent Vacation, their 1987 album, for a 1988 single. Bruce Fairbairn produced, Mike Fraser mixed, and they stack the thing sky-high: Drew Arnott's mellotron hanging like mist, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford's guitars swelling, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer holding the slow build steady, and Tyler wailing away, even blowing a little harmonica along the way.

Cash Box heard the ache of "Dream On" in it, and it paid off: it reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1988, the band's highest-charting single at the time, and only "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" has since beaten it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.