Almost Toto - Airplay - "Stranded"

Jay Graydon and David Foster's band...

Jay Graydon(G,Vo)
David Foster(Key)
Tommy Funderburk(Vo)
(Guest)
Jeff Porcaro
Steve lukather
David Hungate
Bill Champlin

Great insight to the session work of the Toto musicians...

Practically Toto - "Lowdown" - Boz Scaggs

Boz Scaggs could be credited with creating Toto, he used them so much on his records.  He gave them lots of opportunities to play under the pressure of the studio, with the "red-light on". On this record....

David Paich - Keyboards, Mini-Moog & ARP
Jeff Porcaro - Drums
David Hungate - Bass

Also....

Fred Tackett and Louie Shelton on Guitars.

Practically Toto - "New York Minute" - Don Henley

Jeff and Paich played on this Don Henley hit. Take 6 are on the backgrounds. Danny Kortchmar co-wrote and played guitar.

Practically Toto - "Beat It" - Michael Jackson

Everyone knows that Eddie Van Halen played the guitar solo on this track, but Lukather played rhythm guitar AND bass on this mega hit. Also on this track Jeff and Steve P.

Get Boz Scagg's Middle Man CD...

It's basically a Toto record.

Practically Toto - "Running with the Night" - Lionel Richie

Luke and Jeff grace this modest hit for Lionel Richie.  Check out Luke's guitar solo. He was playing along with track listening to it for the first time and the engineer hit record and that was the solo that made the record.

Taking That First Step

The first step in making your dream a reality is to take that "first step."

It sounds obvious and it is.  The saying "once begun, half done" applies to some degree.  But for the sake of this post I'm going to define the "First Step" as the first BIG step.  That step that if not taken your dream would only remain a dream.

In my case it was moving from Indianapolis to Los Angeles to become a session musician.  I would be moving away from the safety of the home I grew up in and the security of the abundant work I had as a musician already.

At the time I left Indy, I had about 40 students (20 hours a week) and gig playing in a top-40 band on the weekends.  Not to mention I was beginning to get a lot of calls to play with other groups in the area.  I should have been satisfied but I wasn't.  There was this dream.  The dream to rub elbows with Tommy Tedesco, Steve Lukather, Lee Ritenour, Jeff Porcaro and all the other LA musicians that populated the credits of all the albums I bought.  I bought some pretty awful records just because one of my favorite SoCal guitarists were listed in the linear notes.  Many of these players also played in movies and on TV shows.

I was 15 when I decided that I wanted to be a Los Angeles session musician.  A quite random and yet specific desire.  Much of my daily rituals were focused on these goal.  I developed a varied and rigorous practice regimen of up to 8 hours a day. This was a step, but not the First Step.  Predictably my grades suffered.  Except in the music classes that my very arts progressive high school offered.

I graduated high school early, missing out on a lot of the senior year fun, so that I could concentrate on my goal.  Thinking I was done with school I set out to become somewhat self sufficient.  This wasn't happening at this point so I enrolled last minute at Butler University.  I majored in…. yes, music.  This was same year that I started teaching at Phelan's Music in Carmel and started playing with Malachi, that top-40 band.  Both of those jobs grew me as a musician (part of the plan) but made it difficult to continue my college education.  So in order to save my mom some money and spend more time practicing I quit Butler after the first year and concentrated on moving to California.

That step was harder than I thought.  It was becoming clear that this would be the First Step.  It was quite daunting.  I didn't have the courage.  I kept delaying it 6 months.  "I'll go after my birthday in July."  "I'll go after Christmas in December."  Hmmm, I guess I was expecting some cool gifts.  I turned 19.  I turned 20.  21 was fast approaching.  Would I ever leave?  I'd never been West of Illinois, let alone all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  No doubt my friends and family doubted I would ever summon the courage to leave the Mid West.  I was wondering this myself.

Then I had an epiphany.  As my 21st birthday approached I thought I'd take a smaller step first.  After turning 21 I would fly to LA and check it out for a week.  If I didn't like it I would stay put.  It was kind of an out.  An excuse.  The month after turning 21 I flew to Vegas (it was cheaper), rented a car and drove to Riverside to stay with friends of friends.  Every day for a week I drove to LA.  To the guitar stores on Hollywood Blvd., and to clubs to hopefully see musicians I "idolized" from afar, and generally just drive around and soak up all things "LA".

I went to the famous Baked Potato.  I went to a place called Dantes to see Russell Ferrante, who's group The Yellowjackets I loved.  Russell spoke with me for an hour afterwards.  He encouraged me to  pursue my dreams.  I went a club called At My Place in Santa Monica and saw saxophonist Richard Elliot.  His guitarist, Carl Verheyen, blew me away.  I met him afterwards and set up a lesson while I was in town.  He gave me some great tips.  I saw Koinonia at The Flying Jib.  Saw some inspiring music the whole week I was in Los Angeles.  It was an exhausting and humbling week.  I flew home.

I did it.  I went to LA.  I could say "it wasn't for me."  I could stay put and continue my career path in the Hoosier state.

But I couldn't.  I loved LA.  I couldn't see myself anywhere else.  That "little" first step gave me the courage to take that big First Step.  It was now a forgone conclusion.  Less than six months later I was living in Pasadena, where I still live.  Yes it was difficult to pack all my earthly possessions in my Gran Prix and drive 2000 miles to a place where I knew not one soul. But I no longer had a choice.  It was destiny.

That was my First Step.  I've never had to make another so difficult since.  A career is generally a series of small decisions, some with little consequence and some with great consequence.  But none of it starts without that first step.  Looking back I see lots of first steps.  From moving to LA, to visiting LA, even something as simple as getting up everyday and putting in the work to grow as a musician.

What was or will be that step for you?

Practically Toto - "I Keep Forgettin'" - Michael McDonald

Jeff and Luke play on this hit by Doobie Brother alum Michael McDonald.  The great Louis Johnson laid down the iconic bass line. 

Practically Toto - "Human Nature" - Michael Jackson

Human Nature was originally written by Steve Porcaro for Toto.  But he got the non-vocal demo to Quincy Jones who liked it and sent it to lyricist John Bettis.  This track featuring Jeff and Steve Porcaro, Paich and Luke is basically Toto with Michael Jackson as lead singer.

Practically Toto - "Breakdown Dead Ahead" - Boz Scaggs

I've been posting YouTube videos of pop songs that were recorded by members of the Wrecking Crew.  The "Wrecking Crew" was a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles who played on many of the hits in the 60's and 70's.  Musicians like Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye and dozens of others laid the foundation tracks for a diverse group of artists like The Beach Boys, The Mamas and Papas, Sonny and Cher, John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel, The Monkees, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, The Carpenters, Nancy Sinatra and many others.  Hal Blaine (who coined the group's name) alone played on six consecutive Grammy Records of the Year.  That's a record that will never be broken.

Towards the end of the 70's a new group of musicians started getting the top calls for major label record dates. A few of them, Steve Lukather, David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, Steve Porcaro and David Hungate went on to form the band Toto. They had several hits in the late 70's and throughout the 80's.  As many hits as they had they went on to play on even more hits for other artists.

This "Practically Toto" series will concentrate on songs that had two or more Toto band members on the recording.

Lukather, Jeff Porcaro and Hungate contributed to almost every track on Boz Scaggs "Middle Man" album. This song, "Breakdown Dead Ahead" features Luke and Hungate.

Neither Hungate nor Luke are in this video.