TOTO "africa" classic or dud

there are covers of 'this must be the place'?

Re:Cover - I saw John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey's cabaret show in 2013, and they opened with a mashup of "This Must Be the Place" (sung by Jessica) and the Beatles' "Two of Us" (sung by John). Also, Shawn Colvin recorded an acoustic version on her Cover Girl album.

Also, The New Yorker said it was so in 2012, so it must be so.

My son played "Africa" in middle school jazz band earlier this year. It's definitely gone beyond hipster interest.

OTOH, his high school marching band percussion section is apparently doing an arrangement of "15 Step" by Radiohead, so who even knows anymore...

FWIW a friend of mine on FB over in Atlanta just now posted all-caps complaining that the bar next to her apartment is currently playing this song, and she added that this proves said bar is 'fuccboi central,' so perhaps that explains it.

I would argue that hipster appreciation for this stuff can be traced back to the Yacht Rock videos

It seemed p.ubiquitous back in, uh, 2007 - mashup w/MIMS' "This Is Why I'm Hot" used to get played at parties a bunch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl6s2Q9BNO4

Once saw Romania, a minor new wave/new romantic-styled Teenbeat band, play a dead-on cover of "Africa" in the late '90s. Was not ironic, which sort of made it ironic. Certainly back then it had not been reintroduced as anything novel, it was just sort of a deadpan punchline.

There was some forwarded youtube clip a few years back of open-mic dudes doing a pro cover of the song, I remember that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLrC7e3vSv8

9 million views! 2010.

tangential and prob OT but i only recently found out that miguel ferrer (yes, that miguel ferrer) played the drums in steve lukather's latin disco project, baby'o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GSo2HKS_GY

This is one of the big numbers in my 17-year-old nephew's high school chorus group's repertoire.

Ur-text for acapella Africa

https://youtu.be/2Fe11OlMiz8?t=1m51s

I actually remember seeing that open mic night Africa a lot on Facebook and stuff, I think those randos had more to do with it than Stranger Things, which was late to the party of anything

There are tons of dance remixes of Africa

My theory is that it's a good song and ppl like it

It's a great song!

The mystery is how this particular song spanned the generation gap(s) as both beloved (?) tune and ur-80s cheesy ironic joke. A la Baker Street or maybe Freebird (for their respective eras). Good song or no, there are obviously hundreds of good songs that no one under the age of 40 knows. My cousin in DC, who is a total bro under 30, seemed really interested in an upcoming protest that involved people gathering to sing Africa at the White House or something.

Idk, are there that many #1 hits in the 80s that are unknown to anyone under 40?

*from the 80s

I'll give you that the way people appreciate "Africa" seems a little different/more self-conscious from the way people appreciate "Every Breath You Take" or something.

i feel like this song is just as popular now as it was like 10 years ago *shrug*

Yeah I'm not even sure if my last post is accurate.

Just heard Toto "Africa " at a wedding and it had multigenerational appeal. Had me thinking about my dislike for it way back when.

just cos i'm bored, these are some random US number ones from the 80s that i'm guessing not too many people in their 30s could sing

"Stars on 45 Medley" Stars on 45
"The One That You Love" Air Supply
"Jessie's Girl" Rick Springfield
"Who Can It Be Now?" Men at Work
"Truly" Lionel Richie
"Everytime You Go Away" Paul Young
"A View to a Kill" Duran Duran
"Oh Sheila" Ready for the World
"There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)" Billy Ocean
"The Next Time I Fall" Peter Cetera and Amy Grant
"Shake You Down" Gregory Abbott
"At This Moment" Billy Vera and the Beaters
"Jacob's Ladder" Huey Lewis and the News
"Always" Atlantic Starr
"Head to Toe" Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
"Lost in Emotion" Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
"Wishing Well" Terence Trent D'Arby
"Together Forever" Rick Astley
"Foolish Beat" Debbie Gibson
"Hold On to the Nights" Richard Marx
"Love Bites" Def Leppard
"Wild, Wild West" The Escape Club
"When I'm with You" Sheriff
"I'll Be There for You" Bon Jovi
"Baby Don't Forget My Number" Milli Vanilli
"Cold Hearted" Paula Abdul
"Blame It on the Rain" Milli Vanilli

I'm 41 and I only know 6 of those

"Jessie's Girl" Rick Springfield

nah

That's one of them

xp Pretty much everyone I know in their 30s knows and could sing "Jessie's Girl."

I'm in my 30s and the last seven are seared into my brain but OK, fair point on a lot of those, especially the ones that are contemporary with "Africa".
4xp Well, yeah, "Jessie's Girl" too

I know pretty much all of those by heart, but then I'm 46.

i'm 30 and i know most of those but i'm weird

I am 42 and could sing 18 of those off the top of my head. The others, I would not be shocked if I heard just a second or two of them and they immediately came back to me. maybe I'll check.

i feel like this song is just as popular now as it was like 10 years ago *shrug*

― dyl, Tuesday, September 19, 2017

OTM. "Africa" and "Rosanna" have never gone away.

tbf I expect I would probably know more of these if I heard a bit, but I don't recognise the titles. Plus these are US hits and some might not have been popular over here.

xp

xpost You heard them all the time in the '90s?

"Who Can It Be Now?" Men at Work

I take exception to this one too, but yeah, Jessie's Girl has reached after-midnight bar sing-along status for my generation along with livin on a prayer, africa and others

xpost You heard them all the time in the '90s?

I definitely heard "Don't Stop Believin'" (and other Journey hits) a lot on the radio in the 90s. Toto a little less but it wasn't obscure stuff by any stretch. Def more than Stars on 45.

xpost You heard them all the time in the '90s?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Yep! Eighties radio, A/C radio, CVS, Walgreens, Publix – they've never gone away.

Sort of what I was getting at above with my half-joking reference to the WWC. The 'revival' of these songs has mostly just seemed to be like a wider public and critical recognition of stuff that was always popular and enduring but overlooked or ridiculed in the press. (I was defending AOR on some of the earliest ILM threads.)

OK, I went through that random list again. These are the ones that didn't leap to mind, even if I recognized the title:

"Stars on 45 Medley" Stars on 45: I want to say there were a bunch of neo-disco era novelty songs? Anyway, I know the title, but not this track.
"The Next Time I Fall" Peter Cetera and Amy Grant: This one came back to me pretty fast!
"Shake You Down" Gregory Abbott: Ooh, totally forgot about this one, but it came back fast. Remember it well.
"Truly" Lionel Richie: I was pretty sure I'd recognize this one, and I did.
"At This Moment" Billy Vera and the Beaters: All these power ballads. I always got this one confused with some cover of If you don't know me by now, but yeah, I know it.
"Jacob's Ladder" Huey Lewis and the News: I know plenty of radio Huey, but not this one!
"Always" Atlantic Starr: Yeah, I know this one.
"Foolish Beat" Debbie Gibson: At first didn't recognize it, but it's in the noggin somewhere.
"When I'm with You" Sheriff: The only one, upon review, that I don't know at all. Not the act, not the name, not the song.

Omg that Sheriff song was inescapable in Canada at least into the early 00s. It actually charted in the early 80s ('82?) AND in '89.

Like Alfred, I know I've heard "Africa" out and about since it was first on the radio, but it seems only recently that it's become this sort of iconic go-to punchline/singalong, a la Bohemian Rhapsody post Wayne's World. Like, I know that song (BR) was long beloved, but WW transformed it into a more pervasive cultural mainstay in the same punchline/singalong mold. That's why I'm trying to figure out what gave "Africa" a big boost relatively recently, like last 10 years.

Wiki not too helpful:

The song was used in an advertisement for Castle Lager in South Africa in the late 1990s.
The song was used in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the fictional radio station Emotion 98.3.
A Foster Farms commercial in the United States features a choir of animatronic chickens singing the song as part of the poultry producer's "Amazing Chicken" campaign.
The song was featured at the beginning of the Scrubs episode "My Way Home". The song was being played through J.D.'s iPod and the band's name was the first of many references to The Wizard of Oz in the episode.
"Africa" was featured in multiple episodes of the 20th season of South Park.
The song was featured in the first episode of the first season of Stranger Things.

I'm still leaning toward Vice City. The/a question is, how many people in their 20s and 30s know "Self Control" by Laura Branigan? Or any of the relatively lesser publicly heard songs from that game?

"Jacob's Ladder" got to #1 because (a) payola (b) Bruce Hornsby. It's the only News hit I couldn't hum either.

"When I'm With You" remains ubiquitous. The lead singer formed Alias and scored a huge hit with 1990's '"More Than Words Can Say."

Hey look at this:

http://www.salon.com/2017/08/13/toto-africa-lyrics/

Though honestly that just comes to the same "good song, people like it" conclusion. I suppose I never thought of it as "world music" before, I guess it doesn't sort of presage something like "In Your Eyes," written by Peter Gabriel for ... Rosanna Arquette! She is the key to this all, I think.

(Does, not doesn't presage)

This is one of the major recent uses of Africa that I seem to recall, and it's from 2010:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkpdMKZBlP8

A while ago I heard Chris de Burgh's "Don't Pay the Ferryman" in the grocery store. Took me back, let me tell you. Another time it was Martin Page's "House of Stone and Light."

"House of Stone and Light" reminds me of "Africa" quite a bit - soaring, great chorus, vaguely spiritual, a white person's idea of shamanistic imagery, a piling up of almost-random metaphors to approximate an unearned deepness.

But that Triumph song has vanished.

Oh, and for the persistence in popular culture of "Don't Stop Believin',"* note that it was also given post-Glee prominence by the execrable Tom Cruise vehicle "Rock of Ages."

* - PHEAR MY MAD PUNCTUATIN' SKILLZ, YO

Oh, forgot about Glee! Is Africa in Glee?

There's also Straight No Chaser's acapella cover of 12 Days of Christmas that incorporates Africa at the end which seems to go back as far as 1998, but I feel like I've heard more and more in recent years, and was included on a Chirstmas album in 2009.

Do younger people glom on to "I Want to Know What Love Is?" the same way?

a close friend and I are forever going WITHOUT MY SOOULLLL YEAH re "House of Stone and Light." It sounded like the mid '90s Sting hit that Sting couldn'ts core.

Josh: not "Africa" that I know of, but that show did rescue a lot of other stuff from potential oblivion.

Re: Men at Work, I don't think "Who Can it Be Now" or "Down Under" have ever quite faded from the culture, but Colin Hay as an artist was almost certainly rescued from bankrupt obscurity by "Scrubs" and "Garden State."

Lord Alfred, one cannot discuss pale Sting imitators without tipping the hat to Mr. Mister. Which was recently given an attempted rescue via a shout-out in that horrible Train song with the fucking ukulele.