Song · Aerosmith
“Lightning Strikes” by Aerosmith
From the album Rock in a Hard Place (1982)
“Lightning Strikes” by Aerosmith appears on 11 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 1990 and 2016. It was first released in 1982 on the album Rock in a Hard Place. Its best result is #171 on the KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1998). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,968 classic rock song of all time.
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"Lightning Strikes" came crackling off Rock in a Hard Place, Aerosmith's 1982 album on Columbia, and it's a curio in the band's story: their only charting song from the stretch without Joe Perry, who had left in 1979 and been replaced by Jimmy Crespo. The song came from Richie Supa, one of the band's friends and collaborators. Crespo and Rick Dufay play electric guitar, Brad Whitford adds parts he cut before he too walked out, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer hold down bass and drums, and Steven Tyler sings and adds keyboards, harmonica and percussion, co-producing with Jack Douglas and Tony Bongiovi.
Arnold Levine's video, one of the band's first real clips for MTV, cuts between the band playing and a street standoff full of glares, bats, chains and knives, with fake lightning between scenes and melons smashed in midair.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Classic Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 382 | Z-Rock | Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990) | 1000 |
| 1994 | 259 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1994) | 1000 |
| 1995 | 216 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1995) | 1000 |
| 1996 | 242 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1996) | 1000 |
| 1998 | 171 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1998) | 1000 |
| 1999 | 394 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1999) | 998 |
| 2012 | 1084 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX Top 1200 Countdown (2012) | 1200 |
| 2013 | 996 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX Grand Jam 1000 (2013) | 1000 |
| 2014 | 934 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX 1K Countdown (2014) | 1000 |
| 2015 | 1000 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX Top 1007 Classic Rock Countdown (2015) | 1007 |
| 2016 | 784 | 100.7 WZLX | 100.7 WZLX Top 1007 Countdown for 2016 | 1007 |
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