Africa (Toto song)

August 1982

Africa is a song by American rock band Toto. The lyrics were written by keyboardist David Paich, the composition of Paich and drummer Jeff Porcaro.

Formation

The song was the second song the band for the album Toto IV recorded. Toto keyboardist David Paich was inspired by the publicity of UNICEF, have been shown in the starving children in Africa. With the song he wanted to attract attention for their fate. The melody wrote Paich within ten minutes at the piano in his living room. Am lyrics he worked for six months, and presented the framework of the song drummer Jeff Porcaro. The idea of Paich was that African percussion instruments should be a central element of the song. Porcaro and percussionist Lenny Castro attended, among others, marimbas, congas and a wooden xylophone on a five-minute tape of Grundrhythmusses from which they then pieced the most successful in their opinion pieces by means of loops around a six minute track basis. In the studio the other instruments were played and overdubt. Bobby Kimball, Steve Lukather and Paich sing in the background choir.

Publication

The song was released in 1982 on the album Toto IV, and reached several high chart positions, including in February 1983 No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard charts and # 3 on the UK Singles Chart.