Formed in Los Angeles, California in 1977 by highly respected session musicians, Toto became one of the most successful Rock and Roll bands of all time. The only constant members of the band throughout the years were the guitarist Steve Lukather and the keyboardist/singer David Paich. But over the decades many incredible musicians were part of the band, some of them were the drummer Jeff Porcaro, the keyboardist Steve Porcaro and the vocalist/keyboardist Bobby Kimball.
But how did the band come up with that name? Well if you are a movie fan, you probably can guess the origin. But the story is not that simple.
How Toto had the idea for their name
In an interview for the documentary “John Parr – Acoustic Fever” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), the band’s former vocalist recalled how they came up with the name Toto. “They were sitting at the house Jeff (Porcaro) had, watching television, they were watching ‘The Wizard of Oz’. The little dog was named Toto and they thought ‘that’s a good name for a band’. That’s where the name came from,” Bobby Kimball said.
Almost the same story was told by their former keyboardist Steve Pocaro, but it wasn’t actually that simple. He said that in an interview with Produce Like a Pro (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). “At that time, it’s really a simple story. There’s a bunch of different (stories). You’re gonna hear the truth today. I remember very distinctively Jeff (Porcaro) saying, there were these bands like INXS, (which) was happening right then, U2, we just wanted something simple. With as few letters as possible, something like Toto, but of course, it would never, ever be Toto.”
“That was the dog in the Wizard of Oz, a movie we all loved. But we just wanted something simple like that. Which was the kind of the style at that exact time in the late 70s. But it was never going to be Toto, ever. But of course, that’s what we would write on the cassettes. Anyway, the next thing you know, I’m looking at an album cover and it says Toto on it. It just kind of stuck,” Steve Porcaro said.
Curiously, a few years ago, Steve Lukather and Joseph Williams toured under the name Toto for a while and the tour was called “Dogz of Oz”. Toto has sold an estimated amount of more than 40 million records worldwide. Some of their biggest hits are “Africa”, “Rosanna” and “Hold the Line”.