Toto goes symphonic with its classics

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Music critics still complain about Toto sweeping the 1983 Grammy Awards with six golden grammophones for its multimillion-selling "IV." As if snatching Record of the Year and Album of the Year honors from dreck like Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder's "Ebony & Ivory" and Billy Joel's "The Nylon Curtain" was such a bad thing.

Toto, from left, Simon Phillips, Mike Porcaro, David Paich, Steve Lukather and Bobby Kimball, makes its orchestral debut this weekend.

The band that gave the world "99," "I Won't Hold You Back," "Georgy Porgy" and, oddly enough, a pretty decent soundtrack to David Lynch's 1985 film fiasco "Dune" is in Honolulu this weekend. The occasion? Its first-ever full-length concerts with an orchestra — in this case, our own Honolulu Symphony Pops, at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.

"It's been in the talking stages for maybe a couple of years," said Toto co-founder/keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter David Paich. "Many Toto songs had orchestra on them, but we've tried to make them adaptable so we're not just playing our records with a symphony added, but actually adding something that's cohesive from a symphonic standpoint ... (Pops conductor) Matt (Catingub) was gracious enough to offer to do the arrangements on (the songs), so we just kind of gave him free rein on this."

• "Georgy Porgy" (1979, from "Toto," No. 48 Billboard Hot 100). "I was listening to a lot of Quincy Jones. And (producer/songwriter) Leon Ware had an album out that he wrote for Marvin Gaye called 'I Want You.' Between (Jones and Ware) I was very inspired because (the music) was light R&B but it also had strings and stuff in it. ... I had (also) been working with Steely Dan at the time on the 'Katy Lied' album. And I asked Walter Becker what he was reading to inspire songs. He told me ... that he was reading children's nursery rhymes. So I went immediately to the store and bought a bunch of children's nursery rhymes and ('Georgy Porgy') was one of the first ones that I opened to."

• "Hold the Line" (1979, from "Toto," No. 5 Billboard Hot 100). "'Hold The Line' is just a riff that I wrote when I got my first apartment. I just kept playing that riff over and over. I think it had to do with a rotary phone or something. Something meaningless, anyway. Early love." (Laughs.)

• "Rosanna" (1982, from "IV," No. 2 Billboard Hot 100). "My dad (composer Marty Paich) had done an album with Ray Charles (with titles that were) all women's names. ... And at the same time (former Toto keyboardist) Steve Porcaro was introduced to a girl named Rosanna Arquette, who at that time was very charming and cute. With the two thoughts and a little bit of (artistic) license, I came up with the song probably within two days. It's kind of an 'I miss you' song (more than a 'breakup' song)."

• "Africa" (1983, from "IV," No. 1 Billboard Hot 100). "'Africa' was a culmination of me reading 'National Geographic,' seeing the UNICEF commercials since I was a kid, and just my sheer hunger and appetite for always wanting to travel around the world and see what different lands are like. I think I invented the song to give me the feeling of what it would be like to be really there. Again, it's kind of an 'I miss you' song ... a guy who's torn between living in his homeland or getting married and going to a different kind of lifestyle other than he was used to."

• "I Won't Hold You Back" (1983, from "IV," No. 10 Billboard Hot 100). "When he's going through turmoil in a relationship, (Toto guitarist /vocalist/songwriter) Steve (Lukather) always comes out with a good song. One of the first big, great songs Steve ever wrote was 'I Won't Hold You Back.' ... We had just released 'Rosanna,' and I asked Quincy Jones, who I was working with, what song we should release next. (Jones suggested a ballad to reach a different demographic from the uptempo "Rosanna.") It became the (third) biggest single on the album (after 'Africa' and 'Rosanna')."

• "I'll Be Over You" (1986, from "Farenheit," No. 11 Billboard Hot 100). "When Steve Lukather and (songwriter) Randy Goodrum pair up, they always come up with something exquisite. I think Randy had written the song for somebody else or was trying to write songs for somebody else. I told him that we wanted to do the song, and we wouldn't let him send it to anybody because it was such a good song. (Steve Lukather's breakups) are always fantastic (for Toto ballads). Whenever he's happy we don't get any good ballads out of him."(Laughs.)

Reach Derek Paiva at 525-8005 or dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.