Toto: Studio Discography (1978-2006) Re-up

Toto was formed in Los Angeles in 1978 by David Paich (b. June 21, 1954, Los Angeles; keyboards, vocals), Steve Lukather (b. October 21, 1957, Los Angeles; guitar, vocals), Bobby Kimball (b. Robert Toteaux, March 29, 1947, Vinton, LA; vocals), Steve Porcaro (b. September 2, 1957, Connecticut; keyboards), David Hungate (b. Texas; bass), and Jeff Porcaro (b. April 1, 1954, Hartford, CT; d. August 5, 1992, Hidden Hills, CA; drums). Paich was the son of arranger Marty Paich; the Porcaros were the sons of percussionist Joe Porcaro. The bandmembers had met in high school and at studio sessions in the 1970s, when they became some of the busiest session musicians in the music business. Paich, Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro wrote songs for and performed on Silk Degrees, the multi-million-selling 1976 album that combined pop, rock, and disco elements into a slick combination which heavily influenced mainstream pop music.

Toto released its self-titled debut album in October 1978, and it hit the Top Ten, sold two-million copies, and spawned the gold Top Ten single "Hold the Line." The gold-selling Hydra (October 1979) and Turn Back (January 1981) were less successful, but Toto IV (April 1982) was a multi-platinum Top Ten hit, featuring the number-one hit "Africa" and the Top Tens "Rosanna" (about Lukather's girlfriend, movie star Rosanna Arquette) and "I Won't Hold You Back." At the 1982 Grammys, "Rosanna" won awards for Record of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Vocal; and Toto IV won awards for Album of the Year, Best Engineered Recording, and Best Producer (the group). In 1984, a third Porcaro brother, Mike (b. May 29, 1955), joined the group on bass, replacing Hungate. Then lead singer Kimball quit and was replaced by Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen (b. May 15, 1951, Wyoming, MI).

Toto's fifth album, Isolation (November 1984), went gold, but was a commercial disappointment. Frederiksen was replaced by Joseph Williams (b. Santa Monica), the son of the conductor/composer John Williams, for Fahrenheit (August 1986). Steve Porcaro quit in 1988, prior to the release of The Seventh One. In 1990, Jean-Michel Byron replaced Williams for the new recordings on Past to Present 1977-1990, then left, as Lukather became the group's lead singer. Jeff Porcaro died of a heart attack in 1992, but was featured on the group's next album, Kingdom of Desire. By this time, Toto was far more popular in Japan and Europe than at home. The group added British drummer Simon Phillips. Tambu, released in Europe in the late fall of 1995, appeared in the U.S. in June 1996. For 1999's Mindfields, Bobby Kimball returned to the lineup after a 15-year absence. The group members continued to do session work during the band's tenure, contributing significantly to the sound of mainstream pop/rock in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s.

by William Ruhlmann, AMG

Musicians:

Steve Lukather (guitar, vocals),
David Paich (keyboards, vocals),
David Hungate (bass, 1977-83),
Jeff Porcaro (drums, 1977-92),
Steve Porcaro (keyboards, vocals, 1977-89, 2010-present),
Bobby Kimball (vocals, 1977-84, 1997-2008),
Mike Porcaro (bass, 1983-2008),
Fergie Frederiksen (vocals, 1984-86),
Joseph Williams (vocals, 1986-89, 2010-present),
Jean-Michel Byron (vocals, 1990),
Simon Phillips (drums, 1992-2008, 2010-present),
Greg Phillinganes (keyboards, vocals, 2005-08)

It's as easy to see why radio listeners loved Toto as it is to see why critics hated them. Toto's rock-studio chops allowed them to play any current pop style at the drop of a hi-hat: one minute prog rock, the next hard rock, the next funky R&B. It all sounded great, but it also implied that music-making took craft rather than inspiration and that the musical barriers critics like to erect were arbitrary. Then, too, Toto's timing couldn't have been much worse. They rode in during the middle of punk/new wave with its D.I.Y. aesthetic, and their sheer competence was an affront. Of course, there's always been an alternate history of popular music not available to rock critics (it's written in record stores and concert halls and on the radio), and in that story, Toto was a smash. Singles like "I'll Supply the Love" and "Georgy Porgy" (featuring Cheryl Lynn) made the charts, and "Hold the Line" hit the Top Ten and went gold. The members of Toto had already influenced the course of '70s popular music by playing on half the albums that came out of L.A. All they were doing with this album was going public.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Child's Anthem (2:46)
02. I'll Supply The Love (3:46)
03. Georgy Porgy (4:09)
04. Manuela Run (3:54)
05. You Are The Flower (4:11)
06. Girl Goodbye (6:13)
07. Takin' It Back (3:47)
08. Rockmaker (3:19)
09. Hold The Line (3:56)
10. Angela (4:45)

If Toto's musical advantage was that, since its members continued to play on many of the successful records made in L.A., its own music was popular almost by definition, its disadvantage was that it made little attempt to seek an individual musical signature – a particular style, say, or a distinctive singer (Bobby Kimball was not it) who could make its records immediately identifiable. "Hold the Line" had been a big hit, but who did it? Boston? Foreigner? As a result, Toto was less well positioned than most to come off a big debut album with the follow-up, and Hydra was unusually dependent on its leadoff single, "99." Maybe it was a tribute to the female lead on the old Get Smart TV show, but many listeners didn't get a song with a chorus that went, "Oh, 99, I love you," and the single stalled in the bottom half of the Top 40. The album went gold on momentum, but the songs, however well-played, simply were not distinctive enough to consolidate the success Toto had achieved with its debut album.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Hydra (7:31)
02. St. George and the Dragon (4:44)
03. 99 (5:16)
04. Lorraine (4:46)
05. All Us Boys (5:02)
06. Mama (5:14)
07. White Sister (5:38)
08. A Secret Love (3:08)

Toto went from disappointment to disaster with its third album, the generic Turn Back. The group's ability to turn out highly competent studio rock was not translating into an individual sound, and since Turn Back had no memorable songs on it, one was left with nothing more than those famous chops that Toto possessed in abundance. The group would rally from this retreat, but for the moment a better title would have been Fall Back, as in, the bandmembers always had their studio jobs to fall back on.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Gift With A Golden Gun (4:01)
02. English Eyes (6:07)
03. Live For Today (4:01)
04. A Million Miles Away (4:37)
05. Goodbye Elenore (4:54)
06. I Think I Could Stand You Forever (5:20)
07. Turn Back (3:57)
08. If It'sThe Last Night (4:39)

It was do or die for Toto on the group's fourth album, and they rose to the challenge. Largely dispensing with the anonymous studio rock that had characterized their first three releases, the band worked harder on its melodies, made sure its simple lyrics treated romantic subjects, augmented Bobby Kimball's vocals by having other group members sing, brought in ringers like Timothy B. Schmit, and slowed down the tempo to what came to be known as "power ballad" pace. Most of all, they wrote some hit songs: "Rosanna," the old story of a lovelorn lyric matched to a bouncy beat, was the gold, Top Ten comeback single accompanying the album release; "Make Believe" made the Top 30; and then, surprisingly, "Africa" hit number one ten months after the album's release. The members of Toto may have more relatives who are NARAS voters than any other group, but that still doesn't explain the sweep they achieved at the Grammys, winning six, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year (for "Rosanna"). Predictably, rock critics howled, but the Grammys helped set up the fourth single, "I Won't Hold You Back," another soft rock smash and Top Ten hit. As a result, Toto IV was both the group's comeback and its peak; it remains a definitive album of slick L.A. pop for the early '80s and Toto's best and most consistent record. Having made it, the members happily went back to sessions, where they helped write and record Michael Jackson's Thriller.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Rosanna (5:33)
02. Make Believe (3:47)
03. I Won't Hold You Back (4:56)
04. Good For You (3:18)
05. It's A Feeling (3:10)
06. Afraid Of Love (3:51)
07. Lovers In The Night (4:26)
08. We Made It (3:58)
09. Waiting For Your Love (4:13)
10. Africa (5:01)

Having traded in lead singer Bobby Kimball for Fergie Frederiksen, a smooth tenor wailer in the tradition of Journey's Steve Perry, Toto proceeded to follow its power ballad smash Toto IV with a Journey clone album, minus the aching ballads that had made Journey such a success. A workout for drummer Jeff Porcaro, keyboardist David Paich, and guitarist Steve Lukather, Isolation was anything but the kind of record those millions who had loved "Rosanna" were waiting for. It seemed intended to restore the bandmembers' heady studio reputations as hard rock technicians, which it did by dispensing with the elements that finally had made the band a big success in 1982.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Carmen (3:25)
02. Lion (4:46)
03. Stranger In Town (4:47)
04. Angel Don't Cry (4:21)
05. How Does It Feel (3:50)
06. Endless (3:40)
07. Isolation (4:04)
08.Mr. Friendly (4:22)
09. Change Of Heart (4:08)
10. Holyanna (4:19)

After the ballad-deprived Isolation failed to meet the marketplace like its predecessor, Toto IV, Toto returned to making lush, mid-tempo tunes of romantic despair on Fahrenheit, enlisting their third lead singer, Joseph Williams, and calling in chips all over L.A. to score cameos from the likes of Michael McDonald, Don Henley, David Sanborn, and even Miles Davis, who had the closing track, "Don't Stop Me Now," pretty much to himself. Williams was a slightly grittier and more identifiable vocalist than Bobby Kimball or Fergie Frederiksen. But while the return to power ballads had the intended effect on the pop and adult contemporary charts (both "I'll Be over You" and "Without Your Love" scored), the album had a relatively low chart peak and failed to go gold. That kind of disconnection always indicates that the radio audience is failing to identify the songs with the group that made them, and it always means a career in trouble.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Till the End (5:27)
02. We Can Make It Tonight (4:19)
03. Without Your Love (4:33)
04. Can't Stand It Any Longer (4:40)
05. I'll Be Over You (3:49)
06. Fahrenheit (4:40)
07. Somewhere Tonight (3:46)
08. Could This Be Love (5:16)
09. Lea (4:31)
10. Don't Stop Me Now (3:06)

Toto attempted to satisfy commercial considerations by loading up the first half of their seventh album with the kind of power ballads that had given the band recognition before, especially songs named after women whose names end in "A" like "Pamela" and "Anna." But these thinly veiled rewrites of "Rosanna" earned only modest radio play, and the rest of the album, which rocked harder as it went on, while it may have been truer to the band's musical aspirations, continued to sound too anonymous to earn any response beyond the band's fan base, especially its international one (which it seemed to be acknowledging by printing some of the sleeve notes in Japanese).

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Pamela (5:10)
02. You Got Me (3:13)
03. Anna (4:55)
04. Stop Loving You (4:30)
05. Mushanga (5:36)
06. Stay Away (5:31)
07. Straight For The Heart (4:12)
08. Only The Children (4:11)
09. A Thousand Years (4:53)
10. These Chains (5:00)
11. Home Of The Brave (6:48)
12. The Seventh One (6:18)






Tracklist:

01. Gypsy Train (6:45)
02. Don't Chain My Heart (4:46)
03. Never Enough (5:44)
04. How Many Times (5:42)
05. 2 Hearts (5:13)
06. Wings Of Time (7:29)
07. She Knows The Devil (5:28)
08. The Other Side (4:40)
09. Only You (4:28)
10. Kick Down The Walls (4:54)
11. Kingdom Of Desire (7:17)
12. Jake To The Bone (7:05)

Toto waxed philosophical on its first album to be recorded since the death of founding member Jeff Porcaro and his replacement by drummer Simon Phillips. The song lyrics were full of abstractions – apathy, dignity, faith, freedom, hope, hopelessness, hypocrisy, rage, trust (those are all from just the first song, "Gift of Faith") – which seemed to indicate that the band members were reflecting seriously, if not too specifically, on weighty issues in an angry, questioning manner. Some of the lyrics couched these internal struggles in romantic terms, but more often they seemed to refer to more general anguish. The group came up with a more focused, harder, bluesier musical style to carry the weight, and Steve Lukather sang expressively, making you wonder why they bothered so long with those cookie-cutter vocalists. Like a patient new to psychoanalysis, Toto went on at length (the album runs over 70 minutes), and without much coherence, about "the pain of my lifetime" and "a world of blind ambition," among other things. You couldn't call the result accomplished, but Tambu suggested that Toto was embarked on a new personal and musical journey that might lead in an interesting direction.

by William Ruhlmann

Tracklist:

01. Gift Of Faith (7:23)
02. I Will Remember (6:06)
03. Slipped Away (5:16)
04. If You Belong To Me (5:03)
05. Baby He's Your Man (5:40)
06. The Other End Of Time (5:04)
07. The Turning Point (5:25)
08. Time Is The Enemy (5:40)
09. Drag Him To The Roof (6:10)
10. Just Can't Get To You (5:03)
11. Dave's Going Skiing (4:59)
12. The Road Goes On (4:26)
13. Blackeye (3:39)






Tracklist:

01. After You've Gone (6:37)
02. Mysterious Ways (3:40)
03. Mindfields (6:01)
04. High Price Of Hate (9:49)
05. Selfish (5:30)
06. No Love (4:35)
07. Caught In The Balance (6:21)
08. Last Love (4:58)
09. Mad About You (4:24)
10. One Road (3:45)
11. Melanie (5:19)
12. Cruel 5:57)
13. Better World (Parts 1, 2 & 3) (7:41)
14. Spanish Steps Of Rome ()

At this point in their career, Steve Lukather and Toto really have nothing to prove to anyone in the rock & roll community. They've accumulated more Top Ten hits with their ballads alone than most bands have their entire career, to say nothing of rock anthems that became cornerstones of arena rock during the '70s and '80s. And while it's been nearly a decade since original material was issued (2002's Through the Looking Glass was an album consisting of cover versions), Falling in Between sounds like a band trying to find itself during a midlife crisis. The title track, while adventurous by Toto's standards with its mixed-metered time signatures and Middle Eastern influences, sounds exactly like the prog rock heroes they aspire to emulate (confirmed by the track-by-track commentary provided in the liner notes). "Dying on My Feet" sounds like a cross between '80s-era Chicago and Foreigner, thanks in no small part to Chicago's James Pankow contributing horn arrangements and playing trombone on the tune. Things do get better along the way. The band finally finds its footing midway through, delivering well-polished performances, and Lukather's voice has stood the test of time surprisingly intact, especially when compared to some of his contemporaries. And while there's no new ground being trodden here, the band sounds fantastic thanks to amazing production values, delivering material that can stand up to some of their best stuff.

by Rob Theakston

Tracklist:

01. Could You Be Loved (3:47)
02. Bodhisattva (4:51)
03. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (5:15)
04. I Can't Get Next To You (4:04)
05. Living For The City (5:49)
06. Maiden Voyage/Butterfly (7:33)
07. Burn Down The Mission (6:28)
08. Sunshine Of Your Love (5:13)
09. House Of The Rising Sun (4:40)
10. Watching The Detectives (4:04)
11. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (3:52)

At this point in their career, Steve Lukather and Toto really have nothing to prove to anyone in the rock & roll community. They've accumulated more Top Ten hits with their ballads alone than most bands have their entire career, to say nothing of rock anthems that became cornerstones of arena rock during the '70s and '80s. And while it's been nearly a decade since original material was issued (2002's Through the Looking Glass was an album consisting of cover versions), Falling in Between sounds like a band trying to find itself during a midlife crisis. The title track, while adventurous by Toto's standards with its mixed-metered time signatures and Middle Eastern influences, sounds exactly like the prog rock heroes they aspire to emulate (confirmed by the track-by-track commentary provided in the liner notes). "Dying on My Feet" sounds like a cross between '80s-era Chicago and Foreigner, thanks in no small part to Chicago's James Pankow contributing horn arrangements and playing trombone on the tune. Things do get better along the way. The band finally finds its footing midway through, delivering well-polished performances, and Lukather's voice has stood the test of time surprisingly intact, especially when compared to some of his contemporaries. And while there's no new ground being trodden here, the band sounds fantastic thanks to amazing production values, delivering material that can stand up to some of their best stuff.

by Rob Theakston

Tracklist:

01. Falling in Between (4:06)
02. Dying on My Feet (6:11)
03. Bottom of Your Soul (6:58)
04. King of the World (4:04)
05. Hooked (4:36)
06. Simple Life (2:22)
07. Taint Your World (4:01)
08. Let It Go (5:00)
09. Spiritual Man (5:22)
10. No End in Sight (6:10)
11. The Reeferman (Instrumental) (1:45)



All thanks go to erro