Todos de Toto - Past to Present

[Tony]

After listening to some more music and trying to find a band that would appeal to most people I settled on Toto. They have a nice decent discography that I can cover and write about. I just finished listening to their debut self-titled album and will post a review of it shortly.

Here is a list of their studio albums as well as two bonus albums I'm going to try and find.

Album list:
Toto (1978)
Hydra (1979)
Turn Back (1980)
Toto IV (1984)
Isolation (1984)
Fahrenheit (1986)
The Seventh One (1988)
Kingdom of Desire (1992)
Tambu (1995)
Mindfields (1999)
Through the Looking Glass (2002)
Falling in Between (2006)

Bonus albums:
Dune (1984)
Toto XX (1998)


So sit back, relax, and enjoy

[Tony]

Toto



Toto started to form in 1976 by drummer Jeff Porcaro and keyboardist David Paich. Both were studio musicians in L.A. at the time. They had worked with Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs. David Paich actually help co-write Boz’s album Silk Degrees. They brought in bassist David Hungate who they had played with on the road with Boz Scaggs. Jeff and David also brought in Steve Lukather and keyboardist Steve Porcaro who had continued their High School band, Rural Still Life that was shortened to Still Life, after they had graduated. Lastly they brought in Bobby Kimball, a singer from Louisiana, as lead vocals.

As the band was recording their first album they were trying to figure out a name for themselves. Jeff Porcaro, who had just watched The Wizard of Oz, started labeling their tapes Toto to distinguish them from the others. When it came time to name the band they explored the word “toto”. In Latin toto means “total” or “all-encompassing” which accurately described the band in being able to play so many different musical styles.

In September of 1977 Toto released their self-titled album and their single “Hold The Line” quickly rose toward the top of the charts. Their other singles “I’ll Supply The Love” and “Georgy Porgy” also rose high on the charts, but nowhere near as high as “Hold The Line”.

Band member Kimball recalls the first time he heard “Hold The Line” on the radio.

“I was asleep,” says Kimball. “I had set my alarm for early because we were going to do some promo in the studio that day, and when it came on, there was ‘Hold the Line.’ I phoned Paich and screamed into the phone, and he was screaming and stumbling around in the dark trying to turn his radio on.” Lukather recalls, “I remember one of the guys called me. I actually sat there in my first house by myself, a little tear in my eye. I mean, wow. We were on the radio in L.A. It was a great feeling.”

The album itself opens well with the song “Child’s Anthem”. It is a nice no-vocal song with lots of piano. The album moves on to “I’ll Supply The Love” and “Georgy Porgy”. I enjoy listening to “I’ll Supply The Love”, but “Georgy Porgy” is just a little too weird for me to get into. The rest of the album is a nice easy listen until you hit “Hold The Line” and want to rock out. The album ends on the song “Angela”, which seems to start a trend of naming at least one song after a woman in their record.

Overall the album is quite enjoyable to listen to and was a good foundation to build off of for later albums. Unfortunately for Toto they won’t hit major success until their fourth album Toto IV. Their second album, Hydra, is up next.

Track Listing:
"Child's Anthem"
"I'll Supply the Love"
"Georgy Porgy"
"Manuela Run"
"You Are the Flower"
"Girl Goodbye"
"Takin' It Back"
"Rockmaker"
"Hold the Line"
"Angela"

[Tony]

Hydra



It is 1979 and Toto releases their second studio album titled Hydra. Hydra ended up being a harder sounding album focusing more on a progressive rock sound than the easy sound of their previous album. The success of the album was not great and only reached Gold status.

The album opens up with the title track Hydra that is quite weird. Following Hydra is “Saint George and the Dragon” which is equally as weird. The third track, “99” is based off the 1979 movie by George Lucas titled THX-1138. In the movie, people are tagged and labeled with numbers. Their music video features a set piece from the movie.

Their female titled track “Lorraine” is one that I do not enjoy very much. It has a very Beatles/60s sound to it that I do not find satisfying in the least. “All Us Boys” was the third single of the album and was not particularly great. The rest of the album is okay with few distinguishing characteristics.

My favorite song of the album would have to be “99”. It is okay, not great. In 2007 Steve Lukather had said that “99” was his least favorite Toto song out of all of them, which is why they rarely performed it live.

Although Hydra was weak, their next album Turn Back would be weaker than the last as they went for a harder sound and experimented more.


Track Listing:
"Hydra"
"St. George and the Dragon"
"99"
"Lorraine"
"All Us Boys"
"Mama"
"White Sister"
"Secret Love"

[Tony]

Turn Back



In 1981 Toto released their third studio album titled Turn Back. This was a harder edged album featuring more guitars and fewer keyboards than the previous two albums. Their only single for the album was “Goodbye Elenore” which received little airtime. Due to the poor commercial success of the album Toto toured very little to promote the album.

It is unfortunate that people didn’t like the album all that much. One of my favorite Toto songs, “Goodbye Elenore”, is on the album. It is one of those songs that you can just rock out to like More Than A Feeling by Boston or Rockin’ Into The Night by .38 Special. You could jump up on a table, whip out your air guitar, and rock hard to that song and probably have others join you.

Besides “Goodbye Elenore” there were three other songs I enjoyed very much. “Gift With A Golden Gun” was the opening track, “A Million Miles Away” right before “Goodbye Elenore”, and “If It’s The Last Night” ending the album.

Overall the album wasn’t that bad. The sound is harder, which probably drove away some fans looking for that easy listening, progressive rock, soothing sound. It will remain a forgotten gem among Toto’s work.

Up next is Toto’s most famous album titled simply Toto IV.

[Tony]

Toto IV



In 1982 came the release of Toto’s fourth studio album, Toto IV. Toto was nominated 6 Grammy’s including "Record of the Year" for "Rosanna", "Album of the Year" for Toto IV, and "Producer of the Year" for the band. When “Africa” was released as another single for the album it boosted it to the top of the charts. “I Won’t Hold You Back”, "Make Believe", and "Waiting for Your Love" were the other three singles on the album.

The song “Rosanna” was named after Steve Porcaro's ex-girlfriend, actress Rosanna Arquette, but the song itself was not about her, according to writer David Paich. In the video for the song you can see Patrick Swayze dance with Cynthia Rhodes, both of them very young looking.

At the end of their huge promotional tour which brought back old fans, rangled in new, and granted them a lot of success piano player Bobby Kimball broke his leg. For the tail end of the tour he was forced to play sitting, which he normally didn’t do.

Out of the all the songs on the album I would have to say “Africa” is my favorite followed closely by “Rosanna”. The other three singles, “I Won’t Hold You Back”, “Make Believe”, and “Waiting For Your Love” are also big favorites of mine. The middle of the album is decent, but nothing noteworthy.

Toto’s next album, Isolation, comes with a member parting.

[Tony]

Toto



Shortly after the release of Toto IV in 1982 bassist David Hungate left the band in order to spend more time with his family. He had already moved to Nashville in 1980 to pursue a sessions and production career there. To replace David the band brought in Mike Porcaro who appeared in all of the music videos for Toto IV.

Lastly, in 1984 during the early production of Isolation Louisianan singer Bobby Kimball was due to problems between him in the band. The position of lead singer was offered to Richard Page of Mr. Mister, but declined to pursue his own band.

Instead former band member of Trillion and Louisiana’s LeRoux, Fergie Fredriksen, was installed as the lead singer and did most of the vocals for the Isolation. Fredricksen would only go on to do vocals for one other Toto album and that being the soundtrack to the movie Dune.

Isolation’s commercial success was okay by only achieving gold status. The tour was very short lasting only three months starting in February of 1985. The only single for the album was “Stranger In Town” which is my favorite of the album.

Other notable songs that are worth listening to are “Carmen”, “Angel Don’t Cry”, “How Does It Feel”, and “Endless”.Continuing the trend of female named songs the album ends with “Holyanna” with “Carmen” starting.

The heat starts turning up in Toto’s next album Fahrenheit.

Track List:
1. "Carmen"
2. "Lion"
3. "Stranger in Town"
4. "Angel Don't Cry"
5. "How Does It Feel"
6. "Endless”
7. "Isolation"
8. "Mr. Friendly""
9. Change of Heart"
10. "Holyanna"

[Tony]

Fahrenheit



Fergie Frederiksen who had been hired on for the Isolation album was let go after the Isolation tour. The reason was that Frederiksen was not meshing well and had a difficult time recording with the rest of the band in the studio. To replace him son of famous film composer John Williams, Joseph Williams was hired on for lead vocals.

In October of 1986 Frederiksen released Fahrenheit with some tracks having vocals due to early recording sessions. Frederiksen can be heard on background vocals for the track “Could This Be Love”.

This album marked a change in the band’s sound with them focusing more on pop rock. The songs “I’ll Be Over You” and “Without Your Love” feature Lukather doing vocals. Since the first album, the front man at the time would sometimes have Lukather, Paich, or sometimes-even Porcaro doing vocals.

The jazz heavy piece “Don’t Stop Me Now” featured famous jazz performer Miles Davis. Another famous person featured in the album, but only as a dancer in the music video “Till The End”, was future pop star Paula Abdul. Michael McDonald was featured in “I’ll Be Over You” and Don Henley of the The Eagles provided the haunting vocals for “Lea”.

Even with all these famous, and soon to be famous, people on their album Fahrenheit failed to achieve gold status. The band embarked on a world tour regardless, but with the conclusion of their tour Steve Porcaro left the band to pursue interests in television scoring. The album would finally achieve gold status years later in 1994.

Steve Porcaro was never replaced, but he did occasionally help with future studio albums. He even went on tour with them in 1988. With Porcaro gone David Paich would handle the live keyboard parts.

Fahrenheit, although not popular, is one of my favorite Toto albums. Their two singles, “I’ll Be Over You” and “Without Your Love” are two of my favorite Toto songs. Others I enjoy are “Till The End” featuring Paula Abdule, “Can’t Stand It Any Longer”, “Fahrenheit”, and “Could This Be Love”.

Their next album, The Seventh One, would be Toto’s most successful album since Toto IV.

[Tony]

The Seventh One



In 1988, Toto released their seventh studio album, The Seventh One. Seventh One turned out to be Toto’s most successful album since Toto IV. Due to some personnel changes within the record company, the band had their album promotion and advertising money pulled. The Seventh One was supposed to be their comeback album. With little support, Toto ended up touring only from February to July of 1998.

The tour, however short lived, was successful. Unfortunately, the band decided to pull Joseph Williams. During the European part of the tour, Williams would lose his voice before performances due to several factors. Excessive partying and drug use were prominent along with getting sick with the flu many times.

To replace their lead singer slot the band wanted to get back with Bobby Kimball. The record company, being an evil money grubbing corporation (not really), decided to put in Jean-Michel Byron. Before Bryan was hired, though, the song “Going Home” was recorded which would make its way to the Toto XX album as an unreleased track.

After recording four songs with Bryan the band went on the Planet Earth Tour. The tour proved that Bryan did not mesh with the band well. He had a non-rock image and weird stage antics. Fans were so outraged that the recorded performances edited out Bryan and listed his as a background singer in the credits.

The singles of the album “Pamela” and “Stop Loving You” are two of my favorite songs by Toto. Although not as great as Fahrenheit, the album had some good songs. “You Got Me”, “Anna”, “Mushanga”, “Stay Away” and “Straight For The Heart” are all good songs.

Ironically, the song “The Seventh One” is only featured in the Japanese version of the album and on various collections.

Kingdom of Desire is the next Toto album.