Bassist Tom Hamilton and vocalist Steven Tyler get the official songwriting credit, but “Sweet Emotion” wouldn’t be quite as sweet without guitarist Joe Perry's unusual addition to the recording. That “sucking sound,” concocted by producer Jack Douglas, combines a high-hat and backwards clapping, along with the phrase “sweet emotion,” sung by Perry through an “air bag.” (“It’s fun. Anybody can do it,” he said of the voice-box effect.) Tyler has confessed that Aerosmith's first Top 40 hit is about Perry’s wife, Elyssa: “I couldn’t get next to Joe when she was around, which was all the time," he said.