The Beatles are the most famous example of a music group that, after years of endless touring, grows tired of the life on the road and retreats to the studio to make albums and never tour again. Steely Dan's main collaborators Walter Becker and Donald Fagan were also known for producing amazing studio records with stellar session musicians and frustrating their record label by never touring to promote the product.
However, sometimes the story goes the other way: successful session musicians, known only to their record labels and the producers who hire them, get tired of making millions for other artists and decide to form a band to make some real dough for themselves. Such is the story of the group Toto.
With a who's-who of 5-star L.A. session players in their various lineups including Steve and Jeff Pocaro and guitarist Steve Lukather (who played on some Steely Dan records!), Toto enjoyed a successful debut album with enough hit power to gather a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist of 1979 (only to lose to the disco group A Taste of Honey!). Though this level of success lasted only a short while after that, their Wikipedia page has them still touring and very popular in Europe, and they've sold 35 million albums!
I really have no idea why I like singing along to the chorus of "I trust the rains down in Africa" - I have no idea what the hell that means! - but I always do (admit it; you do too). Sure, there is guilt in liking a record that uses African mbira and pan flute samples from a keyboard to produce an Americanized 3rd-world pop tune for soccer mommies, but hey, "Africa" by Toto has a great chorus and is still a fine single.
Geniet! (Enjoy!)
-KO
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