On The Road Again: Toto "Toto IV"

jueves, 27 de julio de 2017

Toto "Toto IV"

Toto IV is the fourth studio album by American rock band Toto released in the spring of 1982 by Columbia Records. The album marked the band's career zenith.

The lead single, "Rosanna", peaked at number 2 for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, while the album's third single, "Africa", topping the Hot 100 chart, became the group's first number 1 hit. Both songs were smash hits in the UK as well, reaching number 12 and 3 respectively. The fourth single, "I Won't Hold You Back", also peaked within the top ten on the Hot 100, at number 10, but atop the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts for three weeks. It also went within the top 40 in the UK. With the success of "Africa", the album climbed back into the top 10 in early 1983 on both sides of the Atlantic.

Toto IV received six Grammy Awards in 1983 including Album of the Year, Producer of the Year for the band, and Record of the Year for "Rosanna". It reached number four on the Billboard 200 album charts in the United States alone, shortly after its release. It also reached within top ten in some other countries, including in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, United Kingdom, and Japan.

After the success of their self-titled debut, Toto struggled to sustain success on their next two albums, Hydra and Turn Back. The band was under heavy pressure from Columbia Records to deliver a hit album with their next release or be at risk of being dropped from the label.

The band went back to the formula that helped them succeed on their first album, having an album that touched on many different genres of music. They also utilized many outside musicians to help give the sound a more polished, fuller feel than they had on past albums.

The recording took many months during 1981 and 1982 and the band was allowed a much larger than average recording budget. At a time when most bands were using a single 24-track recorder Toto used as many as 3 separate 24-track recorders at the same time. The 24-track recorders were linked with a computerized SMPTE timecode system that allowed for up to 69 individual tracks of sound simultaneously.

This was the final album with the original Toto lineup. David Hungate, who moved to Nashville during the recording of the album, left the band to spend more time with his family. Bobby Kimball was fired by the band due to drug issues that were damaging his voice.

The band delayed touring after the release of the album to instead help in the production of Michael Jackson's Thriller album, as well as collaborating on Chicago's comeback album Chicago 16 that same year.

Philip Garris's original emblem from the Toto album was updated to show four rings since this was their fourth album. The newer looking, well-polished ring around the hilt of the sword represented their latest work. Each successive ring showed a little more wear and a few more chips which represented the band's previous records.

Track listing

Side one