“Africa” by Toto

Toto closed out Toto IV in 1982 with "Africa", a David Paich and Jeff Porcaro song that the band produced itself and Greg Ladanyi mixed. It's soft-rock craftsmanship at its most luxuriant, a lush, drifting groove and a chorus that swells like the whole studio took one deep breath together, and critics have long praised both the writing and its gentle touch.

It came out as a single in the UK that June and in the US that October, with a Steve Barron video that sets the band in a library. The song went gold in 1991, then caught a second wind on social media decades on; it has since gone Diamond, and the video passed a billion YouTube views in 2024. Rolling Stone ranks it 452 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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