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Toto was formed in Los Angeles in 1978 by David Paich (b. June
21, 1954, Los Angeles; keyboards, vocals), Steve Lukather (b. October 21,
1957, Los Angeles; guitar, vocals), Bobby Kimball (b. Robert Toteaux, March
29, 1947, Vinton, LA; vocals), Steve Porcaro (b. September 2, 1957,
Connecticut; keyboards), David Hungate (b. Texas; bass),  and Jeff Porcaro (b. April 1, 1954,
Hartford, CT; d. August 5, 1992, Hidden Hills, CA; drums). Paich was the son
of arranger Marty Paich; the Porcaros were the sons of percussionist Joe
Porcaro. The band members 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. Paich, Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro wrote songs for and
performed on Silk Degrees, the multi-million-selling 1976 album that combined
pop, rock, and disco elements into a slick combination which heavily
influenced mainstream pop music.
Toto released its self-titled debut album in October 1978,
and it hit the Top Ten, sold two million copies, and spawned the gold Top Ten
single "Hold the Line." 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 number-one hit "Africa"
and the Top Tens "Rosanna" (about Lukather's girlfriend, movie star
Rosanna Arquette) and "I Won't Hold You Back." At the 1982
Grammy’s, "Rosanna" won awards for Record of the Year, Best Pop
Vocal Performance, and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Vocal; and Toto IV
won awards for Album of the Year, Best Engineered Recording, and Best
Producer (the group). In  1984, a third Porcaro brother, Mike (b. May
29, 1955), joined the group on bass, replacing Hungate. Then lead singer
Kimball quit and was replaced by Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen (b.
May 15, 1951, Wyoming, MI).
Toto's fifth album, Isolation (November 1984), went gold,
but was a commercial disappointment. Frederiksen was replaced by Joseph
Williams (b. Santa Monica), the son of the conductor/composer John Williams,
for Fahrenheit (August 1986). Steve Porcaro quit in 1988, prior to the
release of The Seventh One. In 1990, Jean-Michel Byron replaced Williams for
the new recordings on Past to Present 1977-1990, then left, as Lukather
became the group's lead singer. Jeff Porcaro died of a heart attack in 1992,
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. The group added
British drummer Simon Phillips. Tambu, released in Europe in the late fall of
1995, appeared in the U.S. in June 1996. For 1999's Mindfields, Bobby Kimball
returned to the line-up after a 15-year absence. The group members continued
to do session work during the band's tenure, contributing significantly to
the sound of mainstream pop/rock in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. William
Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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