Top 10 Toto Songs

Toto was at all times greater than the ever present “Africa” from Toto IV. In actual fact, as this record of Prime 10 Toto songs illustrates, that won’t even be their greatest work.

After all, Toto will at all times be related to their fourth LP, which closed with “Africa.” That is what occurs when a single disc spins off three Prime 10 hit singles, goes four-times platinum and earns six Grammys – together with album of the 12 months. This was additionally a redemption story. Toto had slipped out of the Prime 40 earlier than the arrival of their 1982 blockbuster.

“IV left the largest mark, for apparent causes,” Toto’s Steve Lukather mentioned throughout a 2012 interview. “We had been virtually thrown off the document label earlier than we delivered that one. We had been looking for out why. It took us some time to understand we simply needed to be ourselves. After we did that, once we did what we needed to do, it went effectively.”

READ MORE: The Ongoing Legacy of Toto’s ‘Africa’

Maybe inevitably, the next countdown is dominated by this period. However Toto would have a formidable resume even with out “Africa” and its gaudy diamond-certified gross sales. (The tune, written by David Paich with a key rhythm contribution from the late Jeff Porcaro, can be their solely chart-topper.)

Toto had notable hit singles earlier than (1978’s three-million-selling Prime 5 tune “Maintain the Line”) and after Toto IV (1986’s gold-certified No. 11 tune “I will Be Over You”), whereas additionally reaching platinum heights with their self-titled debut. 4 different LPs went gold on both facet of their best-known album, together with 1979’s Hydra, 1981’s Flip Again, 1984’s Isolation and 1986’s Fahrenheit.

In protecting, the next record of Prime 10 Toto songs consists of loads of favorites from Toto IV whereas additionally dipping into key moments from the group’s different sometimes-overlooked eras. Just a few of them, in a twist, transfer far afield of the ballads that at all times appear to elevate Toto towards the highest of the charts. They had been at all times greater than the sum of their smooth rock, too.

“The pop hits, should you hearken to the entire album, they’d take a single off of it — and it could be the ballad, or a softer tune,” based on Lukather. “However there was at all times rock stuff on all the albums. … We’ll morph from type to type. That was the factor that was complicated about us, and it possibly pissed off the critics. But it surely gained us a variety of different individuals who really purchase information.”

No. 10. “Georgy Porgy”
From: Toto (1978)

Sung by Lukather however composed by Paich, the smooth-grooving “Georgy Porgy” was a bust on the pop charts, stalling at a paltry No. 48. However then Toto discovered themselves hovering into the Billboard R&B Prime 20. Perhaps that should not have come as a shock, contemplating the influences that formed its creation: “‘Georgy Porgy’ was impressed, to begin with, from rising up round a father who performed jazz,” Paich mentioned in 2014, “however after I heard Leon Ware’s tune for Marvin Gaye referred to as ‘I Need You,’ it was an enormous affect on my life. On the time, Quincy Jones had performed The Dude and totally different instrumental albums. Throw in just a little little bit of Barry White, too, on the drum riff,” he added with fun, “and you’ve got that tune principally.”

No. 9. “St. George and the Dragon”
From: Hydra (1979)

In an indication of issues to come back, this Prime 40 album’s gross sales had been pushed primarily by the hit ballad “99.” However Hydra really begins off with a surprisingly proggy theme. Toto follows St. George (however from the attitude of the beast he is making an attempt to defeat) throughout the layered title observe and into “St. George and the Dragon.” “I hearken to that album, and I believe, ‘How excessive had been we?,” Lukather mentioned with fun. “You may hear the youth in it however on the similar time, we had been looking for our approach. We had been simply experimenting, and we did not care what anyone thought. They already hated us! It is enjoyable to hearken to and assume: ‘Wow, that was actually cool!’ And likewise: ‘That lyric, whoa. Are you kidding me?’ Now we have a extremely good humorousness about all of it.”

No. 8. “Make Consider”
From: Toto IV (1982)

This Paich-written, Bobby Kimball-sung rocker wasn’t an enormous hit, however it illustrated one thing – with each robust Lukather riff – that is usually misplaced within the ballad-driven public persona of Toto. The reality is, they may rock. (Toto was simply as adept at crunchy pop, world music, funky shuffles and even free-form prog, too.) But the simmering gradual jams appeared to lodge most fully within the public’s consciousness. Their delicate facet translated into hits for others like Boz Scaggs (“Miss Solar”) and Michael Jackson (“Human Nature”), too. Even “99,” which solely climbed to No. 26 in 1980, will get performed greater than the equally charting however extra uptempo “Make Consider.” Nonetheless, that takes nothing away from its energy.

No. 7. “I will Be Over You”
From: Fahrenheit (1986)

Along with his hovering background vocals, Michael McDonald would appear to be the important thing collaborator right here. But it surely’s really co-writer Randy Goodrum. He is contributed to a lot of hits for others, together with Chicago (“If She Would Have Been Trustworthy”) and Journey’s Steve Perry (“Oh Sherrie,” “Silly Coronary heart”), whereas engaged on Lukather solo albums relationship again to his 1989 self-titled LP. “He is actually good at what he does. That appears like a throwaway line, however he’s an excellent musician,” Lukather later argued. “Randy’s sense and data of music, of not doing the cliché factor, is there. Whenever you co-write with individuals, there’s a sure chemistry that needs to be there.” It confirmed once more on “I will Be Over You.”

No. 6. “Good For You”
From: Toto IV (1982)

“Good for You” is one other of this mission’s drum-tight lesser-known gems. Co-written by Lukather and Kimball, this tune boasts a Cuisinart-y mix of style feels and kinds. There is a crunchy synth riff (assume Keith Emerson within the Emerson Lake and Powell period), an unforgettably ear-wormy refrain, a dream-sequence middle-eight and, lastly, a scorching solo from Lukather on the fade. And, via all of it, they by no means let go of this relentless R&B-infused groove. Then there’s Bobby Kimball. He matches the lyric’s unvarnished carnal want, performing with a reckless, edgy abandon. (Sadly, that method probably contributed to the reedy texture of Kimball’s voice in later years.)

No. 5. “I Will not Maintain You Again”
From: Toto IV (1982)

Written and sung by Lukather, “I Will not Maintain You Again” shot up the charts in 1983 with a refrain help from Timothy B. Schmit, the honey-voiced singer from Poco and the Eagles. The tune appeared custom-built to fill the ballad spot on Toto IV, however “I Will not Maintain You Again” as an alternative dated again to Toto’s earlier album. “I really wrote that through the Flip Again periods,” Lukather mentioned in 2011, “however I believed, since we had been making an attempt to make extra of a harder-edged document, that it did not match. We had been coming to do Toto IV and lots of people had been bringing different forms of songs to the social gathering. It turned extra of a band-written document. That was when the band got here into its personal.”

No. 4. “99”
From: Hydra (1979)

This David Paich lyric pays tribute to George Lucas’ directing debut, THX 1138, set in a totalitarian twenty fifth century the place individuals are merely numbered drones. Toto’s futuristic video was even common after one of many movie’s scenes. But Lukather sings “99” so sweetly that the tune resonates anyway. Too dangerous he struggled so mightily with its goofy previous. At one level, Lukather went on document as saying he hated the tune and “99” even disappeared from the set record. “That is an instance of speaking out of the facet of your mouth,” he lastly admitted. “Folks nonetheless ask me about it. It is an instance of how the Web is so viral. At first, I did assume it was a tacky lyric. However we performed it on the final tour – simply to show that I used to be simply kidding.”

No. 3. “Africa”
From: Toto IV (1982)

“Africa” supplied a key early roadmap for the rising “world music” style. “It is humorous, Sting at all times says the document is only a blueprint for what really will happen afterward – and I consider that,” Paich mentioned in 2013. Credit score Porcaro’s ageless rhythm, however there’s additionally Paich’s deeply involving keyboard determine. He fooled round on an early Yamaha synth till he achieved a sound that resembles a kalimba. “We had been looking, making an attempt to interrupt some new floor,” Paich added. “That was typical Toto. We not solely used that, but additionally an instrument referred to as a flapamba, which you’ve got heard on Steely Dan’s ‘Rikki Do not Lose That Quantity.’ It was an unique picket African instrument, from the xylophone or marimba household. It was actually enjoyable to experiment.”

No. 2. “Rosanna”
From: Toto IV (1982)

Jeff Porcaro created a canny replace of Bernard Purdie’s legendary half-time shuffle, then Toto performed alongside whereas everybody assumed the completely lovestruck lyric was about actress Rosanna Arquette. (She’d been relationship Porcaro’s sibling bandmate, keyboardist Steve Porcaro.) A rocket-ride key change in all probability required that vocal handoff from Lukather to Bobby Kimball, who nonetheless possessed a stratospheric tenor. However Steve Porcaro’s outburst of a solo stays the tune’s lasting marvel. Porcaro and Paich rigorously created it after dabbling with a Yamaha CS-80s, a GS1, a Minimoog and a number of other different keyboards. Via all of it, “Rosanna” in some way acquired caught at No. 2, behind the Human League’s “Do not You Need Me” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”

No. 1. “Maintain the Line”
From: Toto (1978)

Powered by a pointy riff from the very big-haired, still-teenaged Lukather, Paich’s “Maintain the Line” completes Toto’s argument as a rock band. The video, with its old-school picture-in-picture modifying, is simply as gritty and hard. “Maintain the Line” got here on TV years later when he was on the home of a movie-star good friend and his a lot youthful girlfriend, Lukather recalled in 2012. No person acknowledged Lukather – however the tune nonetheless resonated. “This woman is laughing, saying: ‘Yeah, I do know that tune. I wasn’t born then.’ They do not know it is me, however they know the music. It is timeless. … You’re feeling virtually bizarre whenever you’re someplace, and so they’re at all times taking part in previous traditional rock, however I’ve embraced that. I am honored to be part of it.”