Toto ft Cheryl Lynn ~ Georgy Porgy 1978 Disco Purrfection Version

Here is my remix of Africa    • Toto ~ Africa 1982 Extended Meow Mix  


Boz Scaggs released "Silk Degrees" in 1976 and it instantly became a classic rock album with its varied textures, strong writing, impeccable production and the support of the finest session players available. Joe Porcaro on percussion, David Paich on keyboards and Jeff Porcaro on drums had appeared on the credits for artists as diverse as Seals & Crofts, Steely Dan and Sonny & Cher. My favorite track at the time was "Lowdown", a bittersweet r&b song about cheating that really stood out.


The next thing I know, the accomplished musicians had added a few other members and were getting ready to release their own album, but had trouble naming themselves. One of the members took to identifying their demo tapes with the word TOTO, jokingly after the little dog in "The Wizard Of Oz". They finally decided on Toto, after bassist David Hungate pointed out that it was latin for "all encompassing" . The members had played on so many other projects, the name fit perfectly and TOTO it was.


The debut single "Hold The Line" heralded a new rock band on the radio and peaked at #5 on the pop charts. Cheryl Lynn was on the upswing at this time and provided backing vocals on another song, "Georgy Porgy" that had that "Lowdown" flavor to it and it attracted some attention peaking at # 48. The disappointing chart performance of the single did not slow the band down and they continued on to greater heights and their first #1 single "Africa". But "Georgy Porgy" struck a nerve and over the years was embraced by the r&b crowd and is a classic in its own right today. There are at least six other covers, most notably Eric Benet ft Faith Evans in 1999. I picked up the promo disco version as a dj gig tryout and filed it away....The single and album versions faded in intro, but the promo version started with the drum and piano at full sound level. It was easy to create the new intro and let it flow naturally into the promo version, to make this version a little longer...