Hydra

Performer: Toto
Producer: Toto; Tom Knox
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Toto: Steve Lukather (vocals, guitar); David Paich (vocals, keyboards); Bobby Kimball (vocals); Steve Porcaro (keyboards, electronics); Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California. This is a Super Audio CD playable only on Super Audio CD players. Toto: Steve Lukather (vocals, guitar); David Paich (vocals, keyboards); Bobby Kimball (vocals); Steve Porcaro (keyboards, electronics); Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion). Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California. If Toto's musical advantage was that, since its members continued to play on many of the successful records made in L.A., its own music was popular almost by definition, its disadvantage was that it made little attempt to seek an individual musical signature -- a particular style, say, or a distinctive singer (Bobby Kimball was not it) who could make its records immediately identifiable. "Hold the Line" had been a big hit, but who did it? Boston? Foreigner? As a result, Toto was less well positioned than most to come off a big debut album with the follow-up, and Hydra was unusually dependent on its leadoff single, "99." Maybe it was a tribute to the female lead on the old Get Smart TV show, but many listeners didn't get a song with a chorus that went, "Oh, 99, I love you," and the single stalled in the bottom half of the Top 40. The album went gold on momentum, but the songs, however well-played, simply were not distinctive enough to consolidate the success Toto had achieved with its debut album. ~ William Ruhlmann

The original members of Toto were L.A.-based session men who had played with everyone from George Benson to Boz Scaggs and wanted to create something they could call their own. They scored a hit straight out of the gate with the AOR smash "Hold the Line" from their 1978 debut. Their biggest success, however, would come in the early '80s with "Rosanna" and "Africa" from TOTO IV. The band endured some major personnel shake-ups over the years, and in 1992 founding drummer Jeff Porcaro died unexpectedly, but Toto continued working, even as the individual members kept their lucrative session careers going.

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