Toto - Did You Know?
March 24, 2018Music facts, music trivia, interesting stories and much more. Introducing the "Did You Know" page about American rock band, Toto.
Enjoy!
Toto are an American rock band that were formed in 1976 in Los Angeles, and are known for an interesting musical style which combines elements of rock, pop, soul, funk, hard rock, progressive rock, R&B, blues, and jazz. The current lineup of Toto consists of Joseph Williams (lead vocals), David Paich (vocals and keyboards), Steve Porcaro (keyboards), Steve Lukather (vocals and guitars), and touring members Lenny Castro (percussion), Warren Ham (saxophone), Shem von Schroeck (bass) and Shannon Forrest (drums).
Toto enjoyed commercial success in the late 1970s and 1980s, with their debut album that was released in 1978 and also with the release of Toto IV that was released in 1982 and was critically acclaimed and a commercial success. With that, Toto became one of the best-selling bands of their era.
"Africa" is probably the band's most famous song to date, a song that had great succes as it topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, which was also Toto's only No.1 on that chart, and also reached the number three spot on the UK Singles Chart.
It tells the story of a man who comes to Africa and must make a decision about the girl who comes to see him. He is enamored with the country, but must leave if he is going to be with her.
Another interesting fact about this song, is that Toto were only looking for a song to close off the album, and didn't really think that the song "Africa" would do as well as it did.
Toto has released 17 studio albums, and has sold more than 40 million records all over the world. The band was honored with several Grammy Awards and was also inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009.
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The song "Hold The Line" by Toto was the band's first single.
"Hold The Line" is an expression meaning to maintain your existing position, which in this case, is the singer telling a girl to be patient and stay with their relationship.
Most of the song's lyrics start with the words "it's not." According to band member David Paich, once he came up with the title of the song, he started writing lines about what love isn't: "It's not in the way you say you're mine," "It's not in the way you say you care."
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