Toto “Stranger in Town” charted

Stranger in Town Toto

Writer(s): David Paich, Jeff Porcaro (see lyrics here) First Charted: October 27, 1984 Peak: 30 US, 26 CB, 21 GR, 21 RR, 7 AR, 100 UK, 16 CN, 40 AU, 1DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 9.3 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Toto formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The original lineup consisted of the brothers Jeff Porcaro (drums) and Steve Porcaro (keyboards) along with Steve Lukather (guitar), David Hungate (bass), David Paich (keyboards, vocals), and Bobby Kimball (vocals). That lineup would reach its greatest acclaim and commercial success with 1982’s Toto IV, which produced three top-10 hits – “Rosanna” (#2), “Africa” (#1), and “I Won’t Hold You Back” (#10). It also won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Their next album would see the group’s first shakeup in members. Bobby Kimball was fired during the making of the 1984 album Isolation, although he was still credited as a guest musician. The album went gold and peaked at #42 – a far cry from the multi-platinum top-5 success of the group’s previous effort. The lead single, “Stranger in Town,” featured Paich on vocals and was written by him and Jeff Porcaro. While it reached the top 40, it was a disappointment compared to the success of the singles from Toto IV. Toto would go on to land three more top-40 hits in the 1980s before disappearing from the pop charts. The song’s lyrics are based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind, a British children’s crime drama. The Lancashire children discover a fugitive hiding in their barn. They mistake him for Jesus Christ and the story spreads to other children who come to visit him. He plays along as a way to hide out from the law. However, with posters circulating in town about a wanted murderer, the Lancashire’s father catches on to what his children are doing and calls the police to apprehend him. WK This story was recreated for the music video, with Brad Dourif playing the convict. The video was directed by Steve Barron, who also did such iconic videos as Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” aha’s “Take on Me,” and Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing.” He had also previously worked with Toto on their video for “Africa.” One of the most dramatic scenes in the video for “Stranger in Town” (which is also taken from the movie) is when Dourif is apprehended by the police. He stretches out his arms in a manner that echoes the crucifixion as he is padded down and then cuffed. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Toto WK Wikipedia page for Whistle Down the Wind First posted 12/10/2022; last updated 12/29/2022.

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

Toto hit #1 with “Africa”

Africa Toto

Writer(s): David Paich, Jeff Porcaro (see lyrics here) First Charted: October 29, 1982 Peak: 11 US, 3 CB, 2 GR, 2 RR, 5 AC, 3 UK, 11 CN, 5 AU, 16 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 1.8 UK, 8.89 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 855.0 video, 1475.62 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Africa” was the third single from Album of the Year Grammy winner Toto IV. The lead single, “Rosanna,” was a #2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy for Record of the Year. The follow-up, “Make Believe,” was a minor hit, peaking at #30. “Africa,” however, went all the way to the top of the charts and, thanks to a revival in the 2010s, ended up selling over 4 million copies in the United States. In December 2017, a 14-year-old girl launched a viral Twitter campaign to get the band Weezer to record the song. They did – and it gave the band their first Hot 100 hit since 2009. SF The band’s keyboardist, David Paich, created what became the song’s opening riff when playing around with a new keyboard. Regarding the lyrics, bandmate Jeff Porcaro joked that “a white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he’s never been there, he can only tell what he’s seen on TV or remembers in the past.” WK Paich said he watched a TV documentary about the suffering in Africa and imagined how he’d feel if he was there. He based the landscape descriptions on a National Geographic article. WK He’s also said the song isn’t about a romance, but a man’s love of a continent. WK Band members Steve Porcaro and Steve Lukather have described the song as a dumb experiment with goofy lyrics as placeholders. Porcaro said it was the last song the band recorded and it barely made the album. WK Lukather said it was the worst song on the album. SF The video was directed by Steve Barron, who would go on to do classics like a-ha’s “Take on Me” and Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing.” Paich is in a library doing research, trying to match a scrap of a picture to the book from which it was torn. His efforts are interspersed with shots of a spinning globe and the band performing. It’s “a very stylized, conceptual video with memorable imagery and an abstract storyline…What’s going on is clearly open to interpretation.” SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Toto FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 567. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/17/2019; last updated 7/14/2023.

Toto “Rosanna” released

Rosanna Toto

Writer(s): David Paich (see lyrics here) Released: March 31, 1982 First Charted: April 17, 1982 Peak: 2 US, 2 CB, 13 GR, 14 RR, 17 AC, 8 AR, 12 UK, 4 CN, 16 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.2 UK, 1.29 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 129.1 video, 196.14 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: There has been confusion over the inspiration for this song. David Paich wrote the song about, as he said, “a high school love, one of my first loves.” SF However, bandmate Steve Porcaro was dating actress Rosanna Arquette at the time, leading many to believe the song was about her. Paich said, “he had just met her and was looking to title a song with her name and it just fit perfectly for that song.” SF To confuse matters more, Bobby Kimball sings lead on the song, which caused many listeners to assume that it was Kimball who was dating Arquette. SF Arquette played along with the public’s perception that the song was about her, even saying in an interview it was about “my showing up at 4 a.m., bringing them juice and beer at their sessions.” WK Arquette and Porcaro broke up not long after the song was released. The song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 5 weeks. First it was stuck behind the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” but after it slipped from the top, Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” leap-frogged over “Rosanna.” The song would go on to win the Grammy for Record of the Year and its parent album, Toto IV, won the Grammy for Album of the Year. The album generated two more top-10 hits with the #1 hit “Africa” and the ballad “I Won’t Hold You Back.” The video for the song was directed by Steve Barron, who went on to direct some of the most celebrated videos of all time, including Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing,” and aha’s “Take on Me.” The video is shot in an urban-street setting, inspired by the classic musical West Side Story. Paich got the idea for the video because their was some finger-snapping in the song, reminding him of the classic finger snaps in West Side Story. SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Toto SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/6/2022; last updated 12/6/2022.