Toto

Toto was formed in Los Angeles in 1978 by David Paich, Steve Lukather, Bobby Kimball (born Robert Toteaux), Steve Porcaro, David Hungate and Jeff Porcaro. Paich was the son of arranger Marty Paich, while the Porcaros were the sons of acclaimed jazz drummer and percussionist Joe Porcaro.

The band members met in high school and then at studio sessions in the 1970s when they became some of the busiest session musicians on the West Coast.

Paich, Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro wrote and co-wrote songs for, and performed on, Silk Degrees – the multi-million-selling 1976 Boz Scaggs album that combined pop, rock and disco elements into a slick combination that heavily influenced mainstream pop music.

Toto released its self-titled debut album in September 1978, and it hit the Top Ten right away, sold two million copies and spawned the hit singles Hold the Line, I’ll Supply the Love and Georgy Porgy.

It’s easy to see why the public took to Toto so quickly and why the critics hated them. Their session-musician studio skills let them play any 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 which critics love to erect were artificial.

Nonetheless, the members of Toto had already influenced the course of 70s popular music by playing on half the albums that came out of LA. All they were doing with this album was going public.

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 #1 hit  Africa, and the Top Ten hits Rosanna (about Lukather’s then-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.

Toto IV also won Album of the Year, Best Engineered Recording, and Best Producer (the group).

In 1984, a third Porcaro brother, Mike, joined the group on bass, replacing David Hungate. Lead singer Bobby Kimball also quit and was replaced by Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen.

Toto’s fifth album, Isolation (November 1984), went gold but was a commercial disappointment. Frederiksen was replaced by Joseph Williams, the son of conductor/composer John Williams, for Fahrenheit (August 1986).

Steve Porcaro quit in 1988, prior to the release of The Seventh One. In 1990, lead vocalist Williams left (by mutual agreement) as a result of his problems at the time with cocaine use.

Finding themselves once again without a vocalist, the band became a target for record company interference, with the band’s A&R guy, Bobby Colomby, a one-time member of Three Dog Night, using his muscle to strong-arm the band into using an unknown South African vocalist named Jean-Michel Byron for the new recordings on Past to Present 1977-1990.

The group realised it was a mistake to keep hiring a new frontman, and chose instead to utilise the talent within the existing unit. Steve Lukather (pictured at right) subsequently became the group’s lead singer.

In an echo of Spinal Tap, drummer Jeff Porcaro really did die in a bizarre gardening accident. He suffered a fatal reaction to the insecticide he was using.

He died on 5 August 1992, aged 38, 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 in America. The group added British drummer Simon Phillips before Tambu, released in Europe in the late fall of 1995 and in the US in June 1996.

The group members continued to perform session work during the band’s tenure, contributing significantly to the sound of mainstream pop/rock in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

Former frontman Bobby Kimball rejoined the band in 1998. Ostensibly, the bridges were rebuilt on the basis that Bobby would help promote a 20th anniversary album titled Toto XX, a compilation of rarities, outtakes, and B-sides, which led to touring and a further all-new studio album, Mindfields.

Toto then shifted their focus toward live records and occasional studio updates, including Through the Looking Glass (2002), Falling in Between (2006), Toto XIV (2015), and Old Is New (2018).

The band announced this would be their final studio album.

Guitarist Steve Lukather announced his departure in 2008, rendering the band officially defunct.

Toto reformed in 2010 (with singer Joseph Williams) to tour and raise money for longtime bassist Mike Porcaro, who had been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). He died from complications of the disease in March 2015.

Following a 2019 hiatus, Lukather and Williams completely overhauled the band’s structure in late 2020. Backed by premier touring session musicians, they launched the global ‘Dogz of Oz’ tours and have since operated as a lean legacy act with Lukather the sole continuous member and Joseph Williams as the main lead vocalist.

Co-founder David Paich serves as the group’s musical director.

Bobby Kimball
Vocals
Steve Lukather
Guitar, vocals
David Hungate
Bass
David Paich
Keyboards, vocals
Steve Porcaro
Keyboards
Jeff Porcaro
Drums
Mike Porcaro
Bass
Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen
Vocals
Joseph Williams
Vocals
Jean-Michel Byron
Vocals
Simon Phillips
Drums

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