Toto - Fahrenheit (1986, Columbia)
Look, I just came back to town / Drink that green dragon down...it's time for me to talk and you to listen.
The Lowdown
1984’s
Isolation ended up selling respectively and even produced Toto’s highest charting “rock” single at that point in their career (‘Stranger In Town’, which eventually hit #7 on the mainstream charts). But the lineup wasn’t made to hold together. New singer Fergie Fredericksen wasn’t the best fit for the band’s live dynamic, so they ended up parting ways before the year was even over. Thus it was back to the drawing board, albeit not for long.
Enter
Joseph Williams, son of THE
John Williams, and childhood friend of Steve Lukather. He was the first singer since Kimball whose voice could handle a wide variety of material, and he fit in so fast it was almost as if he had always been there. So much so in fact that he immediately started contributing to the songwriting upon joining. 1986’s
Fahrenheit thus represented yet another subtle and distinct shift in sound for the group, once again taking them into uncharted waters mixed in with some ballads plus more straight ahead pop-rock material. It sold fairly well too, with the power ballad ‘I’ll Be Over You’ going into the top ten in many countries worldwide and subsequent singles doing pretty good too.
With this album, Toto were approaching the end of their “arena rock” era which started with
IV and would end with 1988’s
The Seventh One. This period also marked a point of frustration between Toto and their parent label Columbia, who were going through a period where entire weeks would go by without someone heading over promotion or leadership for new releases. This would hurt Toto’s ability to develop a consistent momentum on the sales side of things, but with a steady lineup in tow Toto went on tour and ended up pleasing the fans anyway despite label problems.