TOTO "africa" classic or dud

:D

Although now I wonder how it is that Africa towers over a lot of 80s hits in terms of spotify plays and youtube views, but still has less than Sweet Child o Mine.

Rosanna Shuffle is awesome. I saw a great Jeff Porcaro tutorial where he was explaining some other Toto song I didn't recognize, and demonstrating all the other ways he could have arranged the drum part, and then explaining why he didn't do those things and instead chose a different set of fills and patterns, to make it interesting to him, to the band, and to anyone paying attention.

I think it's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRHf22WCPew

The sentiment of SCOM is a lot easier to grasp in fairness

though I'm someone who loves looking at spotify play counts, I think they're pretty limited when you're not comparing within one single artist, because you never know *when* a catalog got added... in general you figure all these big acts have been on there forever, but that isn't always the case so there's always an asterisk next to the comparisons imo

Sweet Child of Mine at least in my generation had big appeal with the most frat-like kind of douchey classmates so it would play in every party they appeared in. It wasn't the 80's either I'm talking early 00's. You still hear it every now and the. remixed into other songs in clubs in my city.

I don't think I ever heard Africa outplayed anywhere but "oldies radio".

Yeah I never thought of "Africa" as obscure but idk what would be surprising about "Sweet Child o' Mine" getting more plays.

sweet child is also a very good song that ppl like by one of the most successful rock bands in history when will mysteries cease

man can't believe everybody here has heard of "Africa". when I was growing up I asked schoolmates if they knew that song and they'd shh their mouths and beckon me over to a secret panel on one of the library's bookshelves which led down several vine-covered corridors to reveal 7 other people who were willing to know real truths.

Why did they keep the members of Toto hidden behind a secret panel?

shh

https://media1.giphy.com/media/l2Je7nwgG6ADhw3fy/200_s.gif

lol

Xp unlike say Jessie's Girl this is really a song I only know through revival. I have no childhood memory of it

"Jessie's Girl" is actually less familiar than "Africa" to me, tbh.

revival bums me out because another one of my awesome hipster-ready remixes that i've been sitting on for like ten years makes devastating use of 'africa' in the album-closing stretch, which will now seem hackneyed if i ever attempted to put the dumb thing out there. my bad for waiting oops

do it, being part of the crowd is good

hurry boy, it's waiting there for you

Inspired by this thread I started looking for the total spotify plays of other "80's classics" and I'm impressed that THE OUTFIELD - YOUR LOVE only has 84M plays in spotify! I thought for sure that one would be bigger than Africa.

say it isn't so!

More than a feeling by Boston per example was a song that I thought was less popular than both Jessie's Girl and Your Love but alas it has 132M plays.

BRB will listen to Your Love on repeat until my ears bleed.

Toto vs Poco vs JLo

TOTO vs T.A.T.U.

More than a feeling by Boston per example was a song that I thought was less popular than both Jessie's Girl and Your Love but alas it has 132M plays.

"More Than a Feeling" (not at 80s song btw) has been one of the most played songs on US and Canadian classic rock radio throughout my listening lifetime. If its numbers are lower than "Africa", I would suspect that the caveats Dr Casino mentions might be at work.

Just heard "Hold the Line" on the radio.

does anybody remember "Georgy Porgy"?

Oops you're right I was aware it's a song from the 70's but I was flipping through similar artists and radio stations with Outfield and Rick Springfield that I forgot it's not from the same decade. It sounds good together paired with that set tho

in what universe is "more than a feeling" not a hugely popular song

a way less rockin' one

you people are just making shit up..

Even this happened

https://youtu.be/Tjb2jwA0YCY

Oh I know "more than a feeling" is huge I just thought based on personal experience that "your love" was more popular

"Your Love" just scraped the bottom of the top 40 even in Canada. I had no idea it was a classic in the US until I had a housemate in Buffalo who sang along to it all the time.

Ffs what even is "Your Love". To mouth it mildly Boston's song is more popular.

"Mouth"? Put.

you know it. but if you think you don't, you wouldn't be the first: In Which Doctor Casino Listens to Classic Rock Classics for the First Time

I grew up in the 80s and can sing along almost perfectly with "Africa" and "More than a Feeling" and have no idea what "Your Love" even is.

your love is a crewsh outfield jam

seriously, you have heard "your love" four hundred times, i swear to you. i thought i hadn't heard it either, it just has the most generic title imaginable. if it had been called "I Just Wanna Use Your Love (Toni-i-ight)" a lot of confusion could have been avoided.

oh yeah I totally know that song but wouldn't had you not explained lol

but no way is that shit more popular than MTAF, I used to sing MTAF to myself when I was 9 and that was 1990

'More Than a Feeling' has quite possibly featured on the majority of all rock compilations that have been released since 1976. I can't think of a classic rock song that seems to have been everywhere like that one, apart from maybe 'Sweet Child o' Mine', but even then it's not even close.

More Than A Feeling is epochal, and a total "song x invents band y" mainstay.

Tom Scholz has probably made more money from 'More Than a Feeling' alone than a lot of bands have made in their entire careers.

That's why it's called "More Than a Feeling," iirc.

Lmao

If nothing else, this discussion got me to pay attention to the lyrics to "Your Love". Guy is a total slimeball!

I'm 47 years old and familiar with all the music in this thread, with the exception of "Your Love" - hearing it for the first time now, and my authentic hot take is that it is an utter pile of shit - strained vocal, horrendous production, repellent lyric, generic chord progression.