Razorray21: Iirc When they recorded Beat it, they had Eddie VanHalen do the guitar solo, and it actually set the amps on fire during recording
Stringmaster29: well illl be damned.
laugh-learn: Interestingly, the year before Thriller was released, it was Toto who scooped the pool with a phenomenal haul of 6 Grammy awards for 1982 – including record of the year, album of the year and best engineered recording (non classical)… it’s no coincidence that these guys (A list session players) were called into this project.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-5I7147tunI
Further, I’m really hoping this documentary still gets made.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/porcaro-a-band-of-brothers#/
Buglypoo: See “Hired Guns” on Netflix
wofh-gm: They were an incredibly talented band, and completely underrated. Thriller was one of the best albums ever made it, if not the best. The entire thing was A list performers, producers, directors, and of course artists. The friggin’ music video was directed by John Landis for fucks sake. Vincent Price, I mean…my God! Choreographed by Michael Peters. Make up by Rick Baker and composed by Elmer Bernstein. Holy crap! It’s outrageous the people that assembled for Thriller.
*I know the twats on here can’t separate personal opinion from recognizing artistic quality even in the music and art they are turned off by, but that just speaks about them and society today more than anything.
Even if you don’t care for Michael Jackson or Thriller, you should be able to recognize the incredible talent involved that came together and that it truly is a masterpiece of musical art and collaboration.
pfeifits: Wow, this blows my mind. I didn’t realize that a lot of them were session players.
A40: And yet I’ve heard Toto described (by ‘music critics’) as a forgettable and unoriginal pop band.
1nfiniteMan: Toto’s talent is truly on display in these ‘Rosanna’ isolated tracks. Mind blowing.
Naecid: TIL what Chris tucker and Jackie chan were arguing about in rush hour 2
angelatoao: > He told Quincy he would agree to do the solo on three conditions: > 1) he would never be credited for the work because he didn’t want other members of Van Halen to find out about it…
Yeah. Because they would *NEVER* hear that solo and realize that it was Eddie. Silly rabbit.
SelfDerecatingTumor: This is an incredibly fun fact. Thank you.
wafflecakes: Questlove used to talk about an incident, in a college course, about when Toto resorted to an already-used tape to record some song ideas for Quincy Jones. Apparently, that was the only one they had at the time, and they said, “Eh, fuck it.”
Quincy received the tape, listened to all the ideas, but continued playing the tape, which still had the previous recordings. He stumbled upon one he liked, and that became “Human Nature”.
toan55: Well, they have appeared on thousands of records.
giraffevomitfacts: What I want to know is, was the opening bwaooooooooo … bwaoooooooooo riff a guitar effect or synth/tape effects?
GeoPowelll: They talk a lot about them playing those songs on a new Netflix documentary called, ‘Hired Gun’. A film that showcases studio musicians and how they go about their individual experiences in the music industry. It’s an incredible movie to absorb. Also, it shows the true colors of some of the most popular musicians that hired studio artists, good and bad. I highly recommend watching it.
resist888: Yep. Toto + Louis Johnson on bass. Eddie Van Halen for the guitar solo on Beat It.
bobboboran: Kind of ironic, since [Michael Jackson *was* Toto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w15F4r09Pro).
tacosteve69: You watched Hired Guns too.
amolad: Toto was composed of constantly in demand LA studio musicians.
They played on a lot of people’s records. Even people like Randy Newman.
tentacoolio: According to [Yacht Rock](https://youtu.be/YPYaTqP4X68), Toto played mostly against their will…except for “Human Nature.”
mrsuns10: They certainly blessed the reigns
redberyl: “I’m michael jackson, you are toto!”
NerdENerd: Toto were prolific collaborators in the 80s.
MocodeHarambe: Toto, the band known for the song Africa and quality toilets.
Random-Miser: The toilet people?
Zaseishinrui: you mean Tito, Toto’s what we had for lunch
Kraelan: Today you also learn (well, maybe) that Michael and Tito are the backup singers to Rockwell’s “(I always feel like) somebody’s watching me”
dylanatstrumble: I met up with Dave Paich and Jeff Porcaro in ’89 at the A&M studios in LA when they were brought in to play on a friend of mine’s album.
Amongst the stuff we talked about was Michael and they were raving about his musical abilities.
I had been the tour merchandiser on the Bad tour and I always thought that he should have taken a hotter band on tour than he did. He did have Greg Philanades (sp?) on keyboards, but for me at least the rest of the band was just so so, could have been a lot better with the likes of Porcaro etc
pfft_combat: Could you briefly summarize why he was last on my opinion of Jackson outside of music.
guitarfreak22: He’s so bitter and resentful of their success I can understand why. Even one person in a band can dismantle everyone’s hard work with this attitude.
aegrotatio: Neat. Except for Eddie, I thought it was just a MIDI sequencer.
bolognahole: IIRC, Toto was a bunch of session musicians who decided to make a band.
grewapair: He wonders why Toto wasn’t credited, but you would credit an artist to appeal to more people. Toto was seen, by the public at the time, as a boring band that had a couple of EZ listening hits, in spite of nearly universal critical acclaim. It really wasn’t until much later that the public caught on to how good they really were. So no, no one was going to credit Toto.
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minerman7696: Also, it’s a very low- stress life if you’ve known musicians, it’s a very low- stress life if you’ve known musicians, it’s also a riff by Eddie.
pperca: as opposed to other hired musicians. That doesn’t make the songs Toto’s.
Produced by Quincy and Michael. Most of the big hit songs and lyrics by Michael.
Tao-fish: I bless the songs down in Africa!