Track Listing

1. Love Has The Power
2. Africa
3. Hold The Line
4. Out Of Love
5. Georgie Porgie
6. I'll Be Over You
7. Can You Hear What I'm Saying
8. Rosanna
9. I Won't Hold You Back
10. Stop Loving You
11. Ninety Nine
12. Pamela
13. Animal

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45947 in Music
• Released on: 2000-04-17
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Great band -- disappointing 'Best of'
Over the years, Toto have made plenty of good songs, and a few great songs, and a greatest hits album with more tracks on it could easily have been made. The previously unreleased songs on this album (Love has the power, Out of love, Can you hear what I’m saying and Animal) are not bad, but they are by no means Toto’s best work – better songs than this were ommitted from the album. So if you’re thinking of buying this album just for these songs – don’t.

It’s not a bad album, but the songs don’t really play well together – maybe the songs could have been arranged in a different order. My advice is to buy the outstanding Toto IV album, which includes Rosanna, I won’t hold you back and Africa, along with seven other really good songs. The only other Toto song without which your record collection is incomplete is the brilliant Hold the line, which is on plenty of rock compilations, at least one of which you’ve probably got!

As a first-time buyer of Toto, I was disappointed with this greatest hits album, and I have since bought Toto IV, which in my opinion is much better, especially if you’re only looking to buy one Toto album.

Powerful melodic rock at its best
An excellent overview of the hits of Toto, the ace American session band who became a major attraction in their own right. Although often vilified by critics as being bombastic and dated in style, their music has stood the test of time whilst many of the 'trendy' acts of the late 70s and the 80s are now forgotten. This collection includes very familiar classics like Rosanna and Africa from the immensely successful album Toto IV, together with many other superb tracks which, though hits in the States, are not well known in Britain - for example 99, I Won't Hold You Back, and I'll Be Over You. I have slight reservations about some of the four new tracks recorded specially for this collection, but the rest of the album is so good that it makes up for this.

Throughout the album, the musicianship is superb, with searing and melodic guitar licks by Steve Lukather, and the powerful drumming of Jeff Porcaro, who was one of the greatest rock drummers and whose death in 1992 was a very sad loss to the music world. Lead vocals are handled by a variety of band members, and there are interesting cameo appearances by other singers such as Cheryl Lynn, Jon Anderson and Michael McDonald. With this album now reissued at budget price, it's even more attractive, and my only regret is that the collection isn't a double CD, since the band have done so much quality work that a double could easily have been filled. Maybe a more comprehensive collection will be issued eventually.

PS If you love Toto's music even without the band members singing, two of their many session performances I would particularly recommend are the recent remastered editions of Middle Man and Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs.

ballad orientated
I love this album, as it seems focussed on toto's ballads. 'I won't hold you back', '99', 'Africa' and 'I'll be over you'. These are all exceptional songs. But it is unrepresentative of Toto's general sound. They were quite rock orientated in places, and that is not in evidence on this album. (Bit like Richard Marx - recording ballads that are all released as singles, but his main output on albums being mainstream rock.)