Years before forming Toto with drummer Jeff Porcaro, keyboardist David Paich was stuck on a riff he had written when he first moved away to college. Then, he kept playing it on repeat. “I must have played it for three days, non-stop,” said Paich, who had just bought a new Yamaha upright piano, and before he even wrote the lyrics, started playing what would become the band’s first hit, “Hold the Line.”
“People were banging on the door at night [saying] ‘shut up,’” he said, “and I think I got an eviction notice.
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Juggling Girlfriends on Old-School Phones
The idea for the song came from an experience of Paich’s during high school when he was seeing several girlfriends at once. “My parents were the first ones on my block to get a rotary phone,” remembered Paich. “You guys can’t remember that, because this is a digital age now, but a rotary phone, when you have more than one line, there are buttons on the phone so more people can call, and it rolls over—that’s why they call them rotary phones. “
Paich continued, “Well, when I was in high school, all of a sudden the phone started ringing off the hook, and I had a situation where I was at the dinner table, and I had three girls all call at the same time, so all the lights were flashing. I was kind of juggling girlfriends, and that’s how that came about.”
It’s not in the words that you told me
It’s not in the way you say you’re mine
It’s not in the way that you came back to me
It’s not in the way that your love set me free
It’s not in the way you look or the things that you say that you’ll do
It’s not in the way you look
Or the things that you say that you’ll do
By the time Paich had developed the song more and added lyrics, it was time to find the right person to sing it. “I constructed a little more of it,” he said, “and it was one of the first songs I brought down when we were testing out singers.”
At the time, original Toto singer Bobby Kimball met Paich, Jeff Porcaro, David Paich, and original bassist David Hungate, while he was touring with S.S. Fools, shortly before the band’s split. “So I was free again, and I was looking for something to do,” recalled Kimball. “Then the phone call from David Paich came as a blessing; he asked me if I was interested in joining Toto, and I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Once released on Toto’s 1978 self-titled debut, “Hold the Line” was the band’s first hit, peaking at No. 5.
Hold the line
Love isn’t always on time
Hold the line
Love isn’t always on time
“Hot Fun in the Summertime”
Paich also cited Sly & The Family Stone’s “Hot Fun In The Summertime” as the main inspiration behind the Toto hit. “That record never would have happened if Sly Stone never done ‘Hot Fun in the Summertime,’” said Paich. “It really came out of that groove.”
Porcaro said he was tryingto mimic Sly Stone‘s original drummer, Greg Errico, who played drums on “Hot Fun In The Summertime,” on the track.
When we did the tune, I said, “Gee, this is going to be a heavy four-on-the-floor rocker, but we want a Sly groove,” said Porcaro in a 1988 interview with Modern Drummer. “The triplet groove of the tune was David’s writing. It was taking the Sly groove and meshing it with a harder rock caveman approach.”
The anthemic song remains a staple on the Toto setlist, and Kimball continues to perform “Hold the Line” on his solo tours. Steve Lukather also performed the song while on tour with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 2012 and 2022.
“‘Hold the Line’ was a perfect example of what people will describe as your heavy metal chord guitar licks, your great triplet A-notes on the piano, your Sly ‘Hot Fun In the Summertime’ groove, all mishmashed together with a boy from New Orleans singing,” said Porcaro. “And it really crossed over a lot of lines.
Photo: Rob Verhorst/Redferns
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