“I don’t think Van Halen would put that on the B-side of their worst record”: Desmond Child on his initial reaction to Aerosmith's Dude (Looks Like A Lady), and how he helped turn it from a dud into a huge hit

Aerosmith in 1986.

US producer and songwriter Desmond Child is a hitmaker extraordinaire, responsible for more megahits than you could fit into the back of an imaginary lorry that’s been specially built to carry loads of megahits. That’s how many megahits. Songs such as Bon Jovi’s You Give Love A Bad Name and Livin’ On A Prayer, Alice Cooper’s Poison, Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca and Aerosmith’s Crazy have all been blessed with the Florida native’s Midas touch. Child’s songwriting skillset is so masterful that he can even turn songs he thinks are rubbish into massive hits too.

Appearing on celebrated drummer Kenny Aronoff’s podcast recently, Child recounted the moment Aerosmith played him an early version of the song that would become their 1987 smash Dude (Looks Like A Lady). He was not impressed. “They were working on the side of the stage with the sound man and Joe had been taping this backward guitar that was going ‘da-da-da’ and then Steven started singing, “cruising for the ladies, da-da-da, da-da-da, cruising for the ladies.”