Toto IV by Toto

Toto IV, the Los Angeles band's fourth album, came out on Columbia in April 1982, and it's the record that turned a crew of top-flight session pros into a band the whole world knew. They produced it themselves: David Paich and Steve Porcaro on keyboards, Jeff Porcaro on drums, Steve Lukather on guitar, David Hungate on bass and Bobby Kimball singing lead. It was the last album with Hungate until 2014, and the last with Kimball until 1998.

It's polished to a mirror shine, pop rock laced with soul, funk and jazz chops. "Rosanna" struts on Jeff Porcaro's rolling shuffle and sat at number two for five weeks; "Africa", with its percolating rhythm and misty synths, became their only number one; "I Won't Hold You Back" made the top ten too. The Grammys handed it six awards in 1983, Album of the Year and Record of the Year for "Rosanna" among them.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.