Big Ones is the band's second best-selling compilation album, reaching #6 on the Billboard charts, and selling four million copies in the United States alone.

[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] In March 1987, Aerosmith began working at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for the album that became Permanent Vacation.

[14] No songs on Big Ones were included from Aerosmith's first Geffen release, Done With Mirrors (1985), despite the hit "Let the Music Do the Talking" reaching #18 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.

However, he felt that the songs did not match the "rawness" of the band's earlier material, and seemed a little too "mainstream", with rampant over-production and too many power ballads.

"[17] Tom Sinclair thought well of the album in his review for Entertainment Weekly because it showed that they could mix hard rock and funk-based blues, and that they were more than just the American version of The Rolling Stones.

[18] NB: "Love in an Elevator," "Janie's Got a Gun," and "The Other Side" are presented without their original lead-ins as heard on Pump ("Going Down," "Water Song," and "Dulcimer Stomp," respectively).