Toto Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Countless high school buddies have started their own bands, but very few of them go on to amount to much — and fewer still have achieved the level of enduring success enjoyed by the guys in Toto.
The group started coming together in the early '70s at Grant High School in Van Nuys, Calif., where drummer Jeff Porcaro and keyboardist David Paich met and formed the group Rural Still Life — continued after Paich and Porcaro graduated by their younger bandmates, guitarist Steve Lukather and keyboardist Steve Porcaro. Paich and the Porcaros both had music in their blood — he was the son of arranger Marty Paich, while the Porcaros' father, Joe, was a prolific session percussionist — and they quickly made a name for themselves on the studio circuit, where David and Jeff worked together on a string of projects.
The turning point proved to be Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees LP, which solidified David Paich and Jeff Porcaro's chemistry with bassist David Hungate. Following that album's massive success — and their gigs as his backing band — the trio enlisted Lukather and Steve Porcaro to round out the players in their next group's lineup, with former S.S. Fools singer Bobby Kimball completing the combo newly known as Toto.
Although Toto found immediate success with their debut LP — and their fourth studio effort was a Grammy-winning smash — large portions of the band's catalog have escaped mainstream attention in the U.S. If you've only been a casual fan over the years, the following look at the band's discography may hold a few surprises for you — and if you're among the hardcore faithful, it'll just be the jumping off point for an argument over how badly we missed the mark with Toto Albums Ranked Worst to Best.