Recorded at the Power Station, the album was recorded quickly when, according to Perry, the band went in with some riffs and winged it. Som critics were skeptical about a sober Aerosmith, including a Stereo Review writer who suggested: "A mediocre Aerosmith concert was two hours of imitation Stones. A great Aerosmith concert was a two- minute sound check punctuated by Steve Tyler hurling a bottle of Jack Daniels against Perry's amplifier, followed by ten minutes of pugilism, after which the band would stumble off-stage." Although the album's sales were flat, possibly indicating that Aerosmith's once-loyal audience had lost faith, Aerosmith re-entered the charts for the first time in six years and successfully teamed with Run- DMC for a Rick Rubin-produced re-make of "Walk this Way." The cover was a hit and a new generation of young MTV viewers suddenly became interested in Aerosmith. Robert Christgau of the Village Voice asserted, "Against all odds the old farts light one up: if you can stand the crunch, you'll find more get-up-and-go on the first side {of Done with Mirrors} than on any dozen random neogarage EP's."

In 1987, Aerosmith achieved undeniable success following the release of their album Permanent Vacation. The recording went triple platinum and sold more than two million copies, featuring several blockbuster hits, including "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)," "Rag Doll," and "Angel." The album also signaled Aerosmith's introduction to the video medium, initiating a tradition of releasing some of the most popular videos MTV ever aired. Permanent Vacation drew largely positive comments from music reviewers. Deborah Frost commented in Rolling Stone: "{Aerosmith} has never worked with people so determined to turn it into Bon Jovi, Heart, or Starship. The good news is that it can't be done... The raw, dirty edges of the Aerosmith of old slash through the power schmaltz... The band has never sounded better or more charged."

Aerosmith continued to build upon their new, younger audience by touring with many of the groups they had helped to inspire, including Dokken, Guns-n-roses, and Poison. From 1987-88 the band produced two live albums, Classics Live! and Classics Live II, as well as a greatest hits compilation, Gems. In 1989, Aerosmith released their second chart-buster of the 1980s Pump, which went multi-platinum and garnered several MTV Awards as well as their first Grammy for "Janie's got a Gun," an uncharacteristically moral (at least in the traditional sense) song about child abuse.