Customer Reviews

Essential Toto

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I became a hardcore fan of Toto in 1988 when Pamela came out. I was in Jr. High and to me at the time that was the coolest song released that year. I soon discovered that I enjoyed a lot of their older songs too and began collecting all the standard Toto albums. I then joined the fan club and bought two Toto shirts I wore so much people started to call me "Toto". Why am I telling you all this... well I wanted you to know my background to put my review into perspective. I am no longer that hardcore fan I was back in the day but I still enjoy certain albums (my favorite being their 2006 release "Falling In Between" check it out). I now consider only 4 CDs essential because honestly I don't think most of their albums have held up well over time. I am going to spilt this review into two section. One for the casual fan (which this CD is intended for) and one for the diehard fan (which I used to be one):

CASUAL FAN REVIEW:

If you are looking up this album you are probably a fan of one or two of Toto's hits. This CD may be for you. It has all the major hits and the best thing is they are all beautifully remastered and they have never sounded any better then they do here. There are also a number of album tracks to give you a feel for some of the other songs that Toto has done over the years and you get a sampler of almost all the albums that Sony has the rights to release in the US. If you aren't as big of a fan of Toto's rock hits like "Hold the Line" buy the CD "TOTO: Love Songs". That too is remastered and contains one of the bands best songs that never was released in the US as a single "I Will Remember". Personally I would recomend both "Essential" and "Love Songs" even though there is a lot of the same songs because both these collection, with little exceptions, together have most of the "essential" Toto songs. Also avoid collections like "Super Hits" which to the best of my knowledge are not remastered.

TO THE HARD CORE FANS:

Many of you have pointed out that this is not a 2 CD collection like what is available overseas. There is a very good reason for that... Toto hasn't been a huge hit in the US since I would say 1986 but they continued to have success in Europe. Sony made a wise decsion by not releasing it in two disks which would shoot the cost up. Considering that the casual fan in the US would not need a two disk set since only the really hardcore fan or music collector would even have any knowledge of a lot of the extra stuff on the 2 disk set. I would also argue that the 2 disk set is padded with some unnessesary tracks including some newer songs from "Past to Present" where I believe even the band members would like to see those songs go away. If you want "converts" to the Toto fan base THIS set is a good way to start. It is affordable and it does give a decent overview of Toto's later work. So in my opinion you should give this collection some slack. By giving this poor reviews because your personal favorite song is not on here you have made this album "star wise" look less favorable to a casual fan.

I am giving this 5 stars even though one or two of my personal favorites aren't here because this CD does what is supposed to do... provide a "best of" and quick over view of the bands work. Also the remastering makes this, "Love Songs", and "Falling in Between" the only Toto CDs I listen to on a regular basis.

I give up. I have come to the conclusion that there is simply no Toto collection out there that does the job right. On the advice of another reviewer, I bit the bullet and purchased the two-disc ESSENTIAL TOTO collection available from the UK, but imagine my dismay when I received the set and checked out the track listing only to discover that "Rosanna," "Hold the Line," "Pamela," and several other key tracks were EDITS! I ran into this same problem with another Toto collection I purchased a while back (GREATEST HITS & MORE, also referred to as GREATEST HITS + 8 here on Amazon). What really gets me is the fact that the songs I listed above appear in their full-length version on the domestic ESSENTIAL TOTO (which is the one listed here). Why in the world they were edited on the UK release is beyond me.

At this point I simply refuse to spend any more $$$ on another Toto collection. I will keep my two-disc UK ESSENTIAL TOTO and my two-disc Swedish HOLD THE LINE: THE VERY BEST OF TOTO (both of which have excellent sound quality), and from those collections I'll simply compile my own darn BEST OF. I figure if the record companies can't do it right, then I'll just do it myself, thank you very much.

The 1970's and 1980's ereally was the era of guilty pleasures. I say that because they are still enjoyable today simply as a much as they were back then. Yet, with acts like R.E.O. Speedwagon, Journey, and Foreigner, there are very few that haven't been shown with a decent recognition in greatest hits. Arguably, Toto is just one of those acts that have not had a definitive collection. For a group of studio musicians that have made great pop gems awhile ago, they are still just as enjoyable now as the much as the 1980's. Hopefully this generation who happens tpo be interested in acts like Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez can consider enjoying this collection of songs.

The Essential Toto is a single disc collection of the groups biggest tracks from the 70's and 80's. While there have been budget collection of Toto and their music, this is their first major definitive collection in almost fifteen years. Each songs sounds much better than it was back then. There are just so many guilty pleasures that are highlighted here on this collection like Africa, I Won't Hold You Back, the soulful I'll Be Over You, 99, Rosanna, and Hold The Line to just name a few. This is a delightful retrospective for new listeners, but die hard Toto fans might arguably feel a bit dissapointed that classics like Hollyanna, Stranger In Town, and Til The End could've also been highlighted here on this collection as well.

While The Essential Toto doesn't seem as definitive for hard core Toto fans, they just might want to consider this package as well as their 2003 love songs album as well. But for anybody who enjoys Toto but doesn't have a album or recording of the guilty pleasures, this would be a fairly well put collection for anybody that won't hold you back.

Album Cover: A

Songs: B+

Price: A-

Mastering: B+

Overall: B-

The original recordings of these tracks are phenomenal. The remastered tracks on this particular CD are horrendous. If you plan to use these tracks for any critical listening application, don't buy this disc! Digital distortion-a-go-go.

This is a great compilation album for Toto fans it includes all the hits including Hold the line,Rosanna,Africa,I'll be over you. The only that i could find is that the compilation does lean fairly heavily on their grammy winning Toto IV album ( it includes all three hit songs from that album and one or two selection from other albums). Over all though it is a good compilation and does give a very good overview of the peak period of Toto's career through all their many bandmember changes including the return of original lead singer Bobby Kimball after a 15 year absence. The album also includes Pamela from The Seventh One, The Turning Point from Tambu, The title cut from the new Mindfields album and a rare live recording of On the Run from their appearance at the 1991 Montreux jazz festival excerpted from Toto XX.

Toto is one of those bands only the late 70's could have produced. Studio cats one and all (they made their bones backing Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs, among others), they were slick, skilled and polished professionals. They made music that was slick, polished, and just as professional. They meshed hooky rock with R'n'B styles, and when they finally hooked up with CBS Records, "Hold The Line" shot to the top five almost instantly. Over the course of seven albums for Columbia and a few since for the CBS Legacy subsidiary, they've made a bevy of hits and walked off with a few Grammys.

The Band's prime was the first four albums, culminating in "Toto IV." Apart from "Hold The Line," it was this album that made the band radio favorites. The singles "Africa" and "Rosanna" are the calling cards from that period, with the songs "Make Believe" and "I Won't Hold You Back" also scoring. By then, though, the band was beginning to splinter. There was a new vocalist for the album "Isolation," and the two singles from that album ("Stranger In Town" and "Holyanna") are left off this compilation. Toto then recruited Joe Williams, the son of John Williams, and scored another pair of hits with "I Won't Hold You Back" and "Pamela." (From the albums "Fahrenheit" and "The Seventh One, respectively.) If a song called "Pamela" would make you think of "Rosanna" (or even "Holyanna), you're right. It's little more than a re-write of the band's biggest hit.

There are three other songs from the albums after; you probably don't need them. Given that the albums "Turn Back" and "Isolation" are ignored for this set, the three later-day songs could have been replaced with selections from two earlier albums, or even an extra selection from "Hydra," the band's most progressive sounding album. ("99" is here, though.) I have also never been fond of "Georgy Porgy," which sounds like a song Boz Scaggs laughed off from "Silk Degrees." These omissions drag this "Essential" collection down to a C Grade/3 Star rating.

If you are fan of Toto or 80's, this collection is essential. With the perfect sound quality and descent selection you won't be sorry to have this collection.

As another fan of Toto, in my opinion, this is a great CD to own.
It sure brought back great memories for me.

If this 14 track collection is the only one released in the USA it is a scorn against all the US fans.
In Europe we got a 32 track doubble set to the price of a single cd. I really cannot understand this unjust.
The responsible publisher should be ashamed.

TOTO are amazing , all of these songs are amazing , pretty great compilation for any casual toto fan or a general hits collection for a big fan .... Too bad the Remaster is average at best , they took all the life out of these amazing sounding recordings , they are pretty pinned in the master & your ears get quite tired if you want to listen to this at any volume , if your an ipod or computer listener you'll probably enjoy this , if you are into audiofile this cd does not deliver , what a bummer ..