Toto win six Grammys, including Album of the Year

First posted 6/3/2011; updated 9/20/2020.

Toto IV Toto

Released: April 8, 1982 Peak: 4 US, 4 UK, 15 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.1 UK, 12.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Rosanna (Paich) [5:31] (4/17/82, 2 US, 17 AC, 8 AR, 12 UK, 16 AU, sales: 1.0 million) Make Believe (Paich) [3:43] (8/7/82, 30 US) I Won’t Hold You Back (Lukather) [4:53] (3/12/83, 10 US, 1 AC, 37 UK, 80 AU) Good for You (Kimball, Lukather) [3:17] It’s a Feeling (S. Porcaro) [3:05] Afraid of Love (Lukather, Paich, J. Porcaro) [3:52] (5/22/82 28 AR) Lovers in the Night (Paich) [4:25] (6/19/82, 57 AR) We Made It (Paich, J. Porcaro) [3:56] Waiting for Your Love (Kimball, Paich) [4:12] (7/2/83, 73 US, 27 AC) Africa (Paich, J. Porcaro) [4:55] (10/30/82, 1 US, 5 AC, 3 UK, 5 AU, sales: 4. 0 million) Total Running Time: 41:59 The Players: Bobby Kimball (vocals, backing vocals) Steve Lukather (guitar, vocals, backing vocals) David Paich (keyboards, vocals, backing vocals, orchestral arrangements, horn arrangements) Steve Porcaro (keyboards, vocals) David Hungate (bass) Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion)

Rating: 3.771 out of 5.00 (average of 18 ratings) Quotable: “A definitive album of slick L.A. pop for the early ‘80s” – William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Awards:

About the Album: Toto was the big winner at the 25th annual Grammys, taking home six awards – most notably Album of the Year. “It was do or die for Toto on the group’s fourth album.” WR After finding success with their debut and the top-five hit “Hold the Line,” the next two albums hadn’t delivered any major hits. The label threatened to drop the group. The group responded by “largely dispensing with the anonymous studio rock that had characterized their first three releases.” WR Toto also “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.” WR “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.” WR It took home Grammys for Record of the Year, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s), and Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices. That song was followed up the charts by the top 30 Make Believe “and then, surprisingly, Africa hit number one ten months after the album’s release.” WR The song experienced a resurgence more than 30 years later when a 14-year-old girl launched a viral Twitter campaign in 2017 to get the band Weezer to record the song. The original pushed past 4 million in sales and the subsequent Weezer cover gave them their first Billboard Hot 100 hit in eight years. After two huge hit songs and the Grammy wins, Toto was set to score again. I Won’t Hold You Back, the album’s fourth single, hit #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the adult contemporary chart. It was Toto’s last top-10 pop hit, although they would score four more top-40 hits before the close of the decade, most notably with the #11 hit “I’ll Be Over You.” It meant that “Toto IV was both the group’s comeback and its peak.” WK It was their “best and most consistent record” WR and “remains a definitive album of slick L.A. pop for the early ‘80s…Having made it, the members happily went back to sessions, where they helped write and record Michael Jackson’s Thriller.” WR

Resources and Related Links: Toto’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry WR All Music Guide review by William Ruhlmann WK Wikipedia