Toto - Toto IV (1982, Columbia)
Hands, don't let her go, 'cause then the midnight icy winds will blow
The Lowdown
While not a disaster sales-wise, 1981's
Turn Back had the weakest commercial showing of the three Toto albums released at that point. In response, Columbia had this to say to the band:
“Okay, guys. We let you do what you want to do. Are you gonna give us a hit record? Because if you don’t, we’re gonna drop you.”
...and thus the group once again consolidated their strengths, wrote together, and came up with the biggest selling juggernaut of their career. Taking an opposite approach to the recording process of
Turn Back (where the recording and mixing had been left up to 3rd parties), David Paich and Steve Lukather labored to create "the most obnoxiously overproduced record of all time", a process which involved mixing over a dozen plus tapes down to a 24-track for the various songs and utilizing multiple consoles.
The effort ended up paying off in a big way: Toto IV won
SIX Grammys that year, including Album Of The Year, and sold millions thanks to a couple key singles. The extensive production process also paved the way for key members of the band to get involved in the recording, writing and production of Michael Jackson's
Thriller, which was released later that year.
Unfortunately, internal discord and problems were inevitable. Singer
Bobby Kimball imploded with drug-related problems and founding bassist
David Hungate moved to Nashville. This created several huge holes that the band needed to fill, a situation that marked the beginning of Toto's ongoing battle to find a competent lead vocalist as the 80's wore on...
That being said,
IV is a landmark record in many respects, featuring Toto's most well known set of songs and being a fine representation overall of their early "arena rock" era.