Toto

Biography

Toto was formed in Los Angeles in 1977 (see 1977 in music) by David Paich, Steve Lukather, Bobby Kimball, brothers Steve and Jeff Porcaro, and David Hungate, the son of former United States Congressman and United States District Court Judge William L. Hungate. 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.

Composed entirely of seasoned studio musicians, Toto seemed to come out of nowhere. They did not get known first on the club circuit as most bands do prior to being signed by a label. Their reputations in the studio were enough. For example, Paich, Hungate and Jeff Porcaro wrote songs for and performed on Boz Scaggs' critically-acclaimed hit album Silk Degrees. David Paich wrote "Lady Love Me (One More Time)" with James Newton Howard, Steve Porcaro co-wrote "Human Nature" for Michael Jackson, and Steve Lukather co-wrote "Turn Your Love Around" for George Benson. Lukather was awarded a Grammy in 1983 when "Turn Your Love Around" (from the album The George Benson Collection) was chosen as best R&B song.

At first, the band had no name, so Jeff Porcaro, having watched The Wizard Of Oz recently, wrote the word 'Toto' on demo tapes, to make them identifiable. When Toto was in search for a name, the members came up with very different ideas. They wanted something simple, which would be pronounced the same all over the world. Eventually, after the band explored the origins of the word "Toto", this name was chosen. The origin of the name comes from Latin, meaning "all encompassing". As Toto played a mixture of different styles, they agreed this would be the best name.

Toto released their self-titled debut album in October 1978, selling two million copies based on their top ten hit "Hold the Line". The next two albums Hydra and Turn Back had little success, but Toto IV (released in 1982) featured the number one hit "Africa," as well as the top ten single "Rosanna". Toto IV went multi-platinum and earned several Grammy Awards including 1983 Album of the Year and Record of the Year (for "Rosanna").

Despite the success of Toto IV, the band still continued their work as session musicians. The best example is their collaboration on Michael Jackson's hit album Thriller.

Their only film work to date was for the 1984 David Lynch science fiction film Dune. In addition to their own score, they also recorded the "Prophecy Theme", composed by Brian Eno.

Toto uses a sword as a logo for the band. The sword appeared on the sleeves of Toto, Hydra, Toto IV, The 7th One and Past to Present. Jeff Porcaro explained the story behind the sword and the rings in 1990: "It came about when we finished recording our first album. We hired an artist from San Francisco named Philip Garris, who had done the Grateful Dead album covers from the Haight-Ashbury days, many rock'n roll album covers. He came, listened to the record, went back to San Francisco, painted and brought back the famous emblem of the sword, the ring around the sword and the ribbons. He explained that the sword... that he felt... his exact words were that the music had... TOTO's music had a hard edge, the first album, and it was powerful, but we did many different kinds of music, so he said it was double-edge sword. And a song called Manuela Run says 'Don't look now, you better watch that sword that's hanging over you', the sword of Damocles. So first he said OK, sword. The stone ring represents a piece of work, an album, CD nowadays. And the ribbons... it was the year of the child in 1979 when the record came out, and the ribbons represented the royal year of the child for the children. So that's what the original emblem came from."