“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” is easily one of rock’s best power ballads, led by Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. But another powerhouse voice was almost on it. Aerosmith’s massive hit was written solely by prolific songwriter, Diane Warren, who actually had Celine Dion in mind while writing it.
Videos by American Songwriter
“When I wrote it I thought it would end up being like Celine Dion or somebody like that,” Warren tells Short List about the 1998 hit. Her choice of singer is not surprising, as Warren had previously written Dion’s hits “Because You Loved Me” and “If You Asked Me To.”
“I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” served as the theme song for the 1998 sci-fi film, Armageddon, which featured an all-star cast of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Tyler’s daughter, Liv Tyler. The title came from an interview Warren saw with Barbara Streisand and her husband James Brolin where he said he doesn’t like falling asleep out of fear of missing her.
“I kept it in the back of my head and when that movie came round I thought, ‘You know, I’m gonna write this song because it could be about the end of the world – it could fit that storyline or it could fit this love story,'” Warren explained about the concept. Once Aerosmith got involved, Warren was drawn to the idea of a rock star singing such romantic lyrics as, Don’t want to close my eyes/I don’t want to fall asleep/’Cause I’d miss you baby/And I don’t want to miss a thing.
“What was so cool about when Aerosmith did it, when Steven Tyler sang it, it became a different thing,” Warren continues. “It’s so much cooler to hear someone like Steven Tyler – this gruff, macho rock star, this amazing tough guy – for him to say that lyric, it just brought a whole other dimension to it. I don’t think it would have been the same hit, or the same standard if it wasn’t for someone like Steven Tyler doing that song.”
The song proved to be a pivotal moment in Aerosmith’s career, being the first and only song of their career thus far to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 where it stayed for four weeks. It charted in multiple countries around the world, also hitting No. 4 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 2 on the Adult Top 40 in the U.S.
Mark Chesnutt translated the song to a country audience with his cover in 1999 off his album of the same name. His rendition hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
