Claim: Steven Tyler is an American singer-songwriter and lead singer for Aerosmith.

`` Dream On '' is a power ballad by Aerosmith from their 1973 debut album , Aerosmith . Written by lead singer Steven Tyler , this song was their first major hit and became a classic rock radio staple . Released in June 1973 , it peaked at number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 but hit big in the band 's native Boston , where it was the number one single of the year on WBZ-FM , number five for the year on WRKO and number 16 on WMEX -LRB- AM -RRB- . The song received immediate heavy airplay too on the former WVBF -LRB- FM -RRB- , often showing up in the # 1 position on `` The Top Five At Five '' in June 1973 .   The album version of `` Dream On '' -LRB- 4:28 , as opposed to the 3:25 1973 45rpm edit -RRB- was re-issued in late 1975 , debuting at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 10 , 1976 , breaking into the Top 40 on February 14 and peaking at number 6 on April 10 . Columbia Records chose to service Top 40 radio stations with both long and short versions of the song ; thus , many 1976 pop radio listeners were exposed to the group 's first Top 10 effort through the 45 edit .   `` Dream On '' was first played live in Mansfield , Connecticut at the Shaboo Inn . In a 2011 interview , Tyler reminisced about his father , a Juilliard-trained musician . He recalled lying beneath his dad 's piano as a three-year-old listening to him play classical music . `` That 's where I got that Dream On chordage , '' he said .   Tyler says that this was the only song on the band 's first album where he used his real voice . He was insecure about how his voice sounded on tape , so for the other songs , he tried to sing a bit lower and sound more like soul artists , such as James Brown . The song is also famous for its building climax to showcase Tyler 's trademark screams . The main riff and chorus of the song were sampled in the 2002 song `` Sing for the Moment '' by rapper Eminem on The Eminem Show that also features a solo from Joe Perry .   The song is composed in the key of F minor .