5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Band Toto

Over the years, various members of Toto have been highly sought-after musicians. Collectively, members of Toto have appeared on 5000 albums amassing sales of a half billion albums. It's estimated that 95% of the world's population has heard a performance by a member of Toto.

Toto is perhaps best known for the  #1 smash hit Africa, but there was a lot more to them than one big hit. The band scored 10 top 40 hits including Rosanna, Hold the Line, I Won't Hold You Back, I'll Be Over You, Pamela, 99, Make Believe, Stranger in Town, and Without Your Love. As a band, Toto has sold more than 40 million albums.

When you see Toto in concert,  you are seeing the real deal. Steve Lukather plays guitar and sang lead vocals on original recordings of Rosanna, I Won't Hold You Back, I'll Be Over You, Without Your Love, and 99: Keyboardist David Paich sang lead on Africa, and Stranger in Town; Steve Porcaro on keyboards and synthesizer was also in the original band. Joseph Williams was not in the original band but was the lead singer on the late 80s albums Fahrenheit and The Seventh One which featured the hit Pamela.

For the diehard Toto fan, you can now get the official All In boxset for $499.99. What you get is 17 vinyl albums 13 CDs, A Blue-Ray of their Paris 1990 concert and the amazing Toto IV album in 5.1 surround sound, an 80-page hardcover book, and a certificate of authenticity signed by all the band members. The box set includes the album Old is New, featuring seven previously released songs.

There have been lots of stories about where the band got its name, including the one that it came from Toto the dog in The Wizard of Oz. But, that is not the case. The words "In Toto" in Latin translate to all-encompassing, which seemed to fit since so many of Toto's band members played on so many albums across various genres. Band member David Hungate explained the meaning to the rest of the band, and they adopted it as the name of the band.