WCSX Classic Cuts : Big Ten Inch Record
WCSX Classic Cuts
Aerosmith: “Big Ten Inch Record”
The Hook: We’ve got two DJs, one of them the legendary Dr. Demento, to thank for this cover of an early 1950s rhythm-and-blues song.
Album: Toys in the Attic
Year: 1975
Writer: Fred Weismantel
Stats: Not released as a single, but received quite a bit of FM rock radio airplay. Steven Tyler says many stations wouldn’t play it because they thought he was singing a dirty lyric, but he wasn’t. He insists he sings, “‘cept for my big ten inch record.”
Background: “Big Ten Inch Record” was an early ’50s R-and-B novelty number that Aerosmith covered on their third album, Toys in the Attic. Singer Steven Tyler tells how they found out about this classic cut.
Singer Steven Tyler on how Aerosmith got turned on to the 1952 R&B novelty song “Big Ten Inch Record.” OC:…the blues. :18
“Zonk Rock, whose got an incredible station up in New Hampshire, he’s a disc jockey. He used to hang out in L.A. and he knew Dr. Demento. I was on the road and he would send me cassettes of weird stuff that was going on in L.A.. And it was on there. Bull Moose Jackson. Big Ten Inch Record of a band that plays the blues.”
