I don't see that anyone's mentioned yet, but this song has one of the most recognizable and challenging drum beats to play: the Rosanna shuffle. It's a cross between a few different halftime beats, the Purdie shuffle, the beat from Led Zep's 'Fool in the Rain', and the Bo-Diddley beat, according to the drummer himself, Jeff Porcaro.
Toto is a damned diverse band - the guitarist and drummer, Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro are two of the most prolific studio musicians of the 70s and 80s. They're on everything from Steely Dan to the *most popular MJ stuff. (In Toto: in totality, complete) - That last section is straight jazz-fusion. One of those videos I remember watching as a kid on MTV.
This song was written when a member was Dating the actress ROSANNA ARQUETTE who was the main character (actual ) in the Madonna movie I cant remember Chasing something
Toto was a supergroup composed of many of the best session and touring musicians of the 70's and 80's. They decided to get together and do their own thing so there are musical influences in their music from all of the groups they've ever played with. No wonder their music is so diverse.
The song was written by David Paich, who has said that the song is based on numerous girls he had known. As a joke, the band members initially played along with the common assumption that the song was based on Rosanna Arquette, who was dating Toto keyboard player Steve Porcaro at the time. Arquette herself played along with the joke, commenting in an interview that the song was about "my showing up at 4 a.m., bringing them juice and beer at their sessions.*
The girl in the red dress was the fabulous Cynthia Rhodes; she was the epitome of the dancer in the 80s! She was in Flashdance and dirty dancing which even have cult followings to this day!
This song is SO MUCH FUN LIVE! I just got to see TOTO in concert, and holy moly is it FIRE! Today, i sing this song in karaoke bars and in my car ALL THE TIME! I can actually sing both singers' performances quite well! Don't believe me? I just won third place in a local karaoke bar tourney!
THAT is the INCREDIBLE Cynthia Rhodes dancing. Was married to music icon Richard Marx - and starred in Staying Alive (with Joh Travolta) and Dirty Dancing (with Patrick Swayze - who is also IN this video).
🇬🇧 The 70s & 80s were the absolute best time ever musically. And i feel privileged to have grown up then & heard it all first hand. It totally warms my heart to see you yunguns (young people😊) listening to, and sometimes loving what you're hearing. 🎙️🎶🎼❤️
As I understand it, when Toto formed, all the members had worked separately as session musicians for years. In that role you have to always always adapt to whoever you work with at the moment, being able to give it your all and still not trying to take front position. So a bunch of excellent and humble professional musicians. I can't imagine a better setup for a fantastic band.
The story goes back even further. All the guys except Bobby and Hungate went to the same high school and played in the same band. Mike, who replaced Hungate, went to that school as well tho I don't know if he ever played in that band. Paich and the Porcoro boys' dads met while playing on the Glen Campbell show an introduced their boys to each other.
They were all studio musicians, playing every week, working with the biggest producers (Individually and collectively, Toto members have contributed to an astonishing 5,000 albums, amassing a sales history of half a billion albums.). As Toto I think they took what they had learned and produced their albums themselves. This is a style that is now called yacht rock, a polished, posh sound with great writers, producers and musicians. Groups like Doobie brothers, Steely Dan, Chicago, Survivor, Foreigner, Journey (some of the members sang and played on each others albums). Top notch back in the day and still good today.
Guitarist Steve Lukather sings lead on this song and he is a remarkable guitarist, one of two guitar players Michael Jackson’s Beat it and also played on MJs Human Nature. Lukather also sings lead on "I’ll be over you" and "It’s not the same without your love."
"I'll be over you" will always be my favorite Toto song and I love that Michael McDonald lends his vocals to it. He was quite popular at that time and one of my grandma's favorites, so we would always watch the video together on MTV
I saw Toto live in 2012. I think Hold the Line, Africa and Rosanna took them like a full hour alone for those 3 songs. They made them suuuuuper long with extended solo's and just some amazing jazzy stuff like the outro here in em too. They were fucking amazing, never noticed them play a single note wrong, missing a beat or anything. One of the better live performances I've seen, and I've seen 50+ bands live at this point.
Toto is like you just took the best musicians of every instrument and tossed them in a blender. Their music is NUTS. One of those few bands that, like you were saying with the space shuttle music, will be with me for the long haul.
This is what made MTV so, so special in the 80's. The waiting for the next music video by your singers, groups etc. If only, MTV could be what it was back when it all started. They would announce the next newest video the preview, the day and time...then we come indoors to watch it. It would be the talk the beginning of the school day as we roamed the hallways.
Toto's awesome! The video reminded me of Grease!! She even resembled Olivia Newton John & the guys with the leather! Happy Days was the show with the Fonz in it!! 💥
I think I was in 6th grade listening to the radio at home one afternoon. The DJ introduced this song and I loved it. It was like my first tweenie favorite song. They recently toured here with Journey. I didn’t want to pay $215 for the ticket… but what a great vibe…. Even now at 55 I love it.
The drums you were trying to think of are "congas". Bongos are the small ones that you hold between your knees and play with your hands. Congas are also played with hands but they are much bigger and have stands.
“Rosanna” and “Africa” are both on the Album “Toto IV” released in 1982 (the bands best selling album). Toto IV received three Grammy Awards, “Album of the Year”, “Producer of the Year” and “Rosanna” won “Record of the Year”. Yes that girl can dance, her name is Cynthia Rhodes. She and Patrick Swayze are both in this music video and went on to star in “Dirty Dancing”, Patrick as Johnny Castle and Cynthia as Penny Johnson.
Happy Days was show with Fonzie! O.k. I was so distracted by the girl dancer and she looked so familiar, but she was so small on my phone and she never stood still so it took me a while. Finally figured out she was Patrick Swayze's dance partner (before Baby!), in Dirty Dancing, and yes she can DANCE! I have heard this song by Toto so many times, but have never seen the video. It was reminiscent of West Side Story so I agree with you that it seemed like a play. Toto is awesome. Saw them in concrt on Valentine's Day followed by Journey. Africa is my favorite song by Toto and they killed it in concert. Keep these going please. Loving ALL of it !! 😍
"Spiritual Man" by Toto is one of their lesser known songs that has crept up into my favorite songs of all time! The vocals are insane, the lyrics are incredible, and the instrumentation is just a masterclass in sound design.
I loved ,Africa and Hold the line. It was great time to be alive music wise 70's and 80's. I was in high school when Roseanna came out.If I'm not mistaken the girl in the video. Was in Staying Alive and Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swazey, he was in this video too ❤.
Toto was a supergroup collab of some of the most respected musos who got together and produced some (unsurprisingly) amazing music. And Fonzie was from Happy Days.
I used to go by Roseanne back in the day (don't ask), when I left one job they spray painted a 45 with this song on it and gave it to me as a going away present. Also got a lot of Roxanne and the red dress comments. Brings back so many memories.
When you kept saying “Hold the line,” made me think of “Lay it on the line” by Triumph. Which I would love to see a reaction of that song, or Magic Power, Fight the Good Fight, anything by them. You’ll like them.
Toto was a group of amazing musicians. All most all of their songs r different nd everyone in the band sang on the song. Awesome group. Music is nothing like it used to be man. Such good music back in the day.
A bunch of hardworking studio musicians who got tired of the BS of the music biz trying to piece together a living formed a band and the rest is history. They put together a bunch of songs that hit big. Amazing musicians, composers and arrangers, and performers. One of a kind..
I always loved the "West Side Story" influence to this music video. Back in 1984 when I was in the Army, I was listening to this song on cassette tapes trying to figure out the lead guitar riff on my Fender Stratocaster. Great memories.
The reason why many of these bands you listen to have such variety in their sound, is because of the decades in which the music was made... The 70's typical 'sound' was very different from the 80's, which saw the rise of synth, and the 90's that delved massively into grunge and alternative rock. Many of these bands existed through all three of these decades, and had to change their sound to fit in with the times. While there is still a variety of sound from decade to decade... I think most of us will agree that the difference from the 2000's, to the 2010's, to the 2020's is not even close to the stark differences between the earlier decades. I think the internet has homogenized music to a certain extent. Songs and albums used to chart for FAR longer than today. I remember Def Leppard's "Hysteria" album turned out constant chart songs, and the album was charting for close to a full year. Today's music hit number one in a week, then disappears from the chart 2 weeks later.
I just realised that some of the dance moves were clearly lifted from the "Tonight" scene from West Side Story, down to finger snapping, stylised fight scene and New York alleyways background.
A few years ago - probably over 20 - there was song that had been kicking about in the charts called ‘Another Chance’ by Roger Sanchez. My boyfriend at the time put a Toto album on and we were cuddling up on the sofa. Then suddenly we hear the song ‘I Won’t Hold You Back’ and we both shot up and looked at each other in amazement. It was the sample on the Sanchez song!
"Child's Anthem" into "Girl Goodbye". Saw them twice once early with Jeff and once much later with Simon Phillips and both times they opened with those two. Crazy good.
I don’t think I ever saw this video and it sounds like this is the album version because it’s longer than one that I remember hearing on the radio. Love it either way.
Love Toto! They are truly skilled musicians. I'm still finding songs that some or all of the band has played on...The drum intro is a shuffle created by Jeff Porcaro called the Porcaro Shuffle. These guys are awesome. I think this is my favorite song of theirs. The original version is longer and ends with a jam session where they just go nuts! The girl playing Rosanna was one of the lead dancers in Dirty Dancing.
When they were first recording, they would put the tapes in a can saying in total. Meaning it was done. The way they were saying To-tal it sounded like ToTo and they decided to use it for their name
Look closely and see a young Patrick Swayze as one of the backup dancers. He was wearing the grey tank top t-shirt. Later on, he and “Roseanna”, played by Cynthia Rhoads were in Dirty Dancing.
Can't believe no one else pointed it out. But this is the first time I can remember seeing Patrick Swayze on screen. (dancer in red jacket, grey shirt) I thought you recognized him as your reaction at the moment when you get a good look at his face, 9:50 in the vid. But na.. Most people don't know he was a trained dancer before he became a successful actor.
Eddie Van Halen once called Toto "the band any musician would dream of being in". He told Steve Lukather that "he had never seen a band play tighter than you guys" high praise coming from EVH. That singer you keep referring to is Bobby Kimball and to this day he still does performances
The one with the big mustache and you pointed and said " His Voice Is Crazy ". Is Bobby Kimball, he sang lead on " Hold The Line ". Bobby is from my hometown of Vinton, Louisiana and is a close family friend. OH! and " Georgey Porgy " is a must.
Hey there! FYI, Steve lukather is the lead guitarist. He was Eddie Van Halens' favorite guitarist and friend. High praise for Luke coming from the king, EVH.