To me Steve Lukather, Jeff Poraco and Bobby Kimball were not just in demand LA based session players gracing many albums in the seventies through the eighties - just check the notes on your albums from that era for the extras! - but the core of a talent group going under the name of Toto who released many albums but to which with the exception of 1982's IV with it's clutch of hit singles like Africa and Rosanna don't register on the general public's index of sings they know.
Tot's music is perhaps best characterized by strong arrangements involving horns, keyboards and other instruments as well as fairly thoughtful lyrics in a sound which does also rock
Their first album shows promise with Child's Anthem and Hold The Line which as I recall was a 45 but the first side is lacking a bit of something, the second - you can tell I was brought up in the lp era - is a strong set.
The next album in the pack is 1979's Hydra which has more of uniform concept showing the potential of rock to be musically challenging in the title track especially and is the home to '99' a Favourite of mine.
1981's Turn Back I feel got lost in a clutch of splendid releases that year although it contained Goodbye Eleanor a fast paced rocker and is a very strong album.
The pack does include IV which was huge seller and a good album but one I felt was a bit too mellow and almost too polished while it's follow up Isolation from 1984 has more of a rock feel with songs like Carmen, Holyanna and Stranger In Town the video of which is etched in my memory.
If you've ever been curious about Toto or just wish to explore some classy music this set is a cheap way to do it.
Well I don't know about you but one of the highlights during the year at our high school was the School Disco which we were lucky in that we had a proper dj set up and mc spinning the discs some of which we supplied from our own modest collections.
One the most in demand request for discs was from the group Chic which I had a decent set of 45's at the time to which we danced to loving funk and Soul music at the time.
This takes me to a recent 2cd set issued by Music Club a budget UK label called Chic Magnifique which I purchased.
This disc has 37 recordings by them including all the hits we loved such as Le Freak, My Forbidden Lover, Good Times, Hangin' as as well as a few tracks from the 1992 Chic-ism comeback album .
It comes with excellent notes that reveal just how many of these tracks have been sampled by today's R&B/Rap acts and reminds me so much of those 'Good Times'.
Also up on the deck but for different reasons a couple of discs by the noted singer-songer writer Linda Ronstadt except that for me at least this was amongst the stuff we heard on FM radio back especially at weekends and evenings in the dorm then so frequent that although many of her hits from that period are burnt into my brain I never bought any albums by her then or afterward.
Born in 1946 in Tuscon, AZ, Linda's career started in 1967 with the Stone Ponies which is represented on Greatest Hits by Different Drum but then she went solo recording for Capitol having a huge hit with You're No Good and Asylum/Warner with a swathe of hits throughout the 70's such as Blue Bayou, It's so Easy and Hurt So Good.
Later on she explored jazz-pop with Nelson Riddle and Mexican folk with such tracks as What's New but inevitable it's the 70's material you come back to.
These two speciality reissues from 1993 and 1998 of her 1976 and 1980 compilations mastered by Steve Hoffman for DCC Records showcase that material.
An artist who plows a musical furrow for a while and moves on is hard to compile so it helps to have some prime slices in their original album form which this set I bought recently does.
Five prime slices with their front and rear covers in a slim box with track listings, this boosts your appreciation of what she achieved.
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