"Africa" is a song by American rock band
Toto, the tenth and final track on their fourth studio album ''
Toto IV
''Toto IV'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Toto released in the spring of 1982 by Columbia Records.
The lead single, " Rosanna", peaked at number 2 for five weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 charts, while the album's third si ...
'' (1982). It was released as a single in the US through
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
in October 1982, the album's third single overall and second in Europe. The song was written by band members
David Paich
David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the ba ...
and
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...
, produced by the band, and mixed by Grammy-winning engineer
Elliot Scheiner
Elliot Ray Scheiner (born 18 March 1947) is a music producer, mixer and engineer. Scheiner has received 27 Grammy Award nominations, eight of which he won, and he has been awarded four Emmy nominations, two Emmy Awards for his work with the Ea ...
.
Critics praised its composition and Toto's performances. The song reached number one on the United States'
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, the band's only ''Billboard'' number one, and number one on the Canadian charts. It also peaked in the top ten in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
The song was accompanied by a music video, which premiered in 1983, and was directed by
Steve Barron
Steven Barron (born 4 May 1956) is an Irish-British filmmaker. He is best known for directing the music videos for the songs "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, "Summer of '69" and " Run to You" by Bryan Adams, " Money for Nothing" by Dire Stra ...
, who collaborated previously with the group for "
Rosanna". The video features Toto in a library, as they perform and showcase various aspects of African culture. While popular in the 1980s and 1990s, with the song being
certified gold
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by the RIAA in 1991, "Africa" saw a resurgence in popularity via social media during the mid- to late 2010s, including a fan-requested cover by American rock band
Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing v ...
which peaked at number 51 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
It has since been certified eight times platinum.
Background
The initial idea and lyrics for the song came from
David Paich
David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the ba ...
. Paich was playing around with a new keyboard, the
CS-80,
and found the brassy sound that became the opening riff. He completed the melody and lyrics for the chorus in about ten minutes, much to Paich's surprise. "I sang the chorus out as you hear it. It was like God channeling it. I thought, 'I'm talented, but I'm not that talented. Something just happened here!'"
Paich reckons that he refined the lyrics for six months before showing the song to the rest of the band.
In 2015, Paich explained that the song is about a man's love of a continent, Africa, rather than just a personal romance.
He based the lyrics on a late night documentary with depictions of African plight and suffering. The viewing experience made a lasting impact on Paich: "It both moved and appalled me, and the pictures just wouldn't leave my head. I tried to imagine how I'd feel about it if I was there and what I'd do."
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...
elaborates further, explaining: "A white boy is trying to write a song on
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, but since he's never been there, he can only tell what he's seen on TV or remembers in the past."
Some additional lyrics relate to a person flying in to meet a lonely missionary, as Paich described in 2018.
As a child, Paich attended a Catholic school; several of his teachers had done missionary work in Africa. Their missionary work became the inspiration behind the line: "I bless the rains down in Africa." Paich, who at the time had never set foot in Africa, based the song's landscape descriptions from an article in ''
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
''.
[
During an appearance on the radio station ]KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock").
The stat ...
, Steve Porcaro and Steve Lukather
Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...
described the song as "dumb" and "an experiment" and some of the lyrics as "goofy" that were just placeholders, particularly the line about the Serengeti
The Serengeti ( ) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game reserves. The Serengeti ...
. Engineer Al Schmitt
Albert Harry Schmitt (April 17, 1930 – April 26, 2021) was an American recording engineer and record producer. He won twenty Grammy Awards for his work with Henry Mancini, Steely Dan, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, and other ...
stated that "Africa" was the second song written for ''Toto IV'' and had been worked on extensively in the studio. According to Steve Porcaro, it was the last song they recorded and barely made the cut. At one point, Jeff Porcaro considered saving "Africa" for a solo album because some members did not think the song sounded like Toto. The band was more focused on the album's lead single "Rosanna".
Composition
Musically, the song took some time to assemble. Steve Porcaro
Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother (after the deaths of Jeff in 1992 and M ...
, the band's synth player, introduced Paich to the Yamaha CS-80, a polyphonic analog synthesizer
An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically.
The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...
, and instructed him to write a song specifically with the keyboard in mind. Paich gravitated towards a brassy flute sound, which he found to be a unique alternative to the piano. Porcaro programmed six tracks of a Yamaha GS 1 digital piano to emulate the sound of a kalimba
Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...
. Each track featured a one-three note gamelan
Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...
phrase with different musical parameters. Steve Porcaro's brother, Jeff, played his parts live without a click track
A click track is a series of audio cues used to synchronize sound recordings, sometimes for synchronization to a moving image. The click track originated in early sound movies, where optical marks were made on the film to indicate precise timin ...
.
Jeff Porcaro also acknowledged that he was influenced by the sounds created by fellow Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
session musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
s Milt Holland
Milton Holland (born Milton Olshansky; February 7, 1917 – November 4, 2005) was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian percu ...
and Emil Richards
Emil Richards (born Emilio Joseph Radocchia; September 2, 1932 – December 13, 2019) was an American vibraphonist and percussionist.
Biography Musician
Richards began playing the xylophone aged six. In High School, he performed with the Hartfor ...
. He also described the significance of the African pavilion drummers at the 1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...
and a ''National Geographic'' Special. To recreate those sounds, he and his father Joe Porcaro made percussion loops on bottle caps and marimba respectively. I was about 11 when the New York World's Fair took place, and I went to the African pavilion with my family. I saw the real thing ... It was the first time I witnessed somebody playing one beat and not straying from it, like a religious experience, where it gets loud, and everyone goes into a trance.
Music video
The music video used the radio edit and was directed by Steve Barron
Steven Barron (born 4 May 1956) is an Irish-British filmmaker. He is best known for directing the music videos for the songs "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, "Summer of '69" and " Run to You" by Bryan Adams, " Money for Nothing" by Dire Stra ...
. It features Mike Porcaro
Michael Joseph Porcaro (May 29, 1955 – March 15, 2015) was an American bass player known for his work with the rock band Toto. He retired from touring in 2007 as a result of being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
He was ...
on bass, replacing David Hungate
William David Hungate (born August 5, 1948) is an American bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his T ...
, who had already left the band before the video was made. Lenny Castro is also featured in the video on percussion. As of December 2021, the music video has over 773 million views on YouTube.
In the video, a researcher in a library (portrayed by band member David Paich) tries to match a scrap of a picture of a shield to the book from which it was torn out. As he continues his search, a female librarian working at a nearby desk takes occasional notice of him, while a native carrying a shield that matches the picture begins to close in on the library from the surrounding jungle. When the researcher finds a book titled ''Africa'', the native throws a spear at a bookshelf, toppling stacks of books. ''Africa'' falls open to the page from which the scrap was torn, but a lantern lands on it and sets it on fire, after which the librarian's eyeglasses are shown falling to the floor. The scenes are intercut with shots of a spinning globe and the band performing atop a stack of giant hardcover books, in which ''Africa'' is the topmost.[
]
Legacy
The song was popular upon its release, hitting number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in February 1983, and the song has continued to be a popular soft-rock classic up to the 21st century. ''Cash Box
''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' called it an "image-filled package of pop exotica with its gently tropical synth and marimba
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
." The song has been utilized in many internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
s, has appeared in television shows, such as ''Stranger Things
''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Prod ...
'', ''Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...
'', ''Chuck
Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to:
People
Arts and entertainment
* Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet
* Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer
* C ...
'', and ''South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'', and was used by CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
during their 2013 coverage of the funeral
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...
of former South African President
The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president heads the executive branch of the Government of South Africa and is the commander-in-chief of the South African Natio ...
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
, albeit not without controversy. It was also included in the 2002 video game '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' as part of the fictional Emotion 98.3 radio station.
In 2012, "Africa" was listed by music magazine ''NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' in 32nd place on its list of "50 Most Explosive Choruses." In January 2019, a sound installation was set up in an undisclosed location in the Namib Desert
The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namib ...
to play the song on a constant loop. The installation is powered by solar batteries, allowing the song to be played indefinitely. Two years later, the song reached 1 billion plays on the streaming site Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
. In 2021, it was listed at No. 452 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time".
Personnel
* David Paich
David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the ba ...
– lead and backing vocals, synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
, piano
* Bobby Kimball
Robert Troy Kimball (born March 29, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter best known as the original and longtime frontman of the rock band Toto from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1998 to 2008. Kimball has also performed as a solo artist and ...
– lead and backing vocals, percussion
* Steve Lukather
Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...
– electric guitar, backing vocals
* Steve Porcaro
Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother (after the deaths of Jeff in 1992 and M ...
– synthesizers
* David Hungate
William David Hungate (born August 5, 1948) is an American bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his T ...
– bass guitar
* Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...
– drums, cowbell, gong, additional percussion
Guest musicians
* Lenny Castro
Lenny or Lennie may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Lennie (surname), a list of people
* Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''L ...
– congas, shakers, additional percussion
* Timothy B. Schmit
Timothy Bruce Schmit (born October 30, 1947) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He has performed as the bassist and vocalist for Poco and the Eagles (band), Eagles, having replaced bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner in both cases ...
– 12-string acoustic guitar, backing vocals
* Joe Porcaro – percussion, marimba
* Jim Horn
James Ronald Horn (born November 20, 1940) is an American saxophonist, woodwind player, and session musician.
Biography
Horn was born in Los Angeles, and after replacing saxophonist Steve Douglas in 1959, he toured with member Duane Eddy for f ...
– recorders
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
Weezer cover
In December 2017, Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
user "@WeezerAfrica," run by 14-year-old Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
resident Mary Klym, tweeted, "''@RiversCuomo it's about time you bless the rains down in Africa''." The band released a cover of " Rosanna", a different Toto song (also part of the album ''Toto IV
''Toto IV'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Toto released in the spring of 1982 by Columbia Records.
The lead single, " Rosanna", peaked at number 2 for five weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 charts, while the album's third si ...
''), in order to troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
Klym and those clamoring for a version of "Africa".
Weezer finally released "Africa" on May 29, 2018. It was the band's first Hot 100 hit since " (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" in 2009. "Africa" reached number 51 on the Hot 100 and peaked at number one
Number One most commonly refers to:
* 1 (number)
Number One, No. 1, or #1 may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''Number 1'' (Big Bang album), and the title song
* ''No. 1'' (BoA album), and the title song
* ''No.1'' (EP), by CLC
* ''n.1 ...
on the ''Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Alternative Songs
Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...
chart in August 2018, becoming the band's first number-one single since "Pork and Beans
Pork and beans is a culinary dish that uses pork and beans as its main ingredients. Numerous variations exist, usually with a more specific name, such as Fabada Asturiana, Olla podrida, or American canned pork and beans.
American canned pork a ...
" in 2008.
Weezer included the cover on their surprise release of the all-covers " Teal Album" in January 2019.
See also
* List of best-selling singles in Australia
This is a list of highest-certified singles in Australia according to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Since 1983, ARIA certifies a single Platinum for shipment of 70,000 copies across Australia. Single figures can include "q ...
* List of RPM number-one singles of 1983
'' RPM'' was a Canadian magazine that published the best-performing singles of Canada from 1964 to 2000. During 1983, twenty-seven singles became number-one hits in Canada. Toni Basil commenced the year with her single "Mickey" while Paul McCart ...
* List of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one singles of 1983
* "Africa" (Karl Wolf song)
References
Further reading
Jeff Porcaro reminisces about how the song's percussion tracks took shape
at '' Mix''
External links
* Billboard Chart Listing - Allmusic.com*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Africa (Toto Song)
1981 songs
1982 singles
Atlantic Records singles
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Columbia Records singles
Internet memes introduced in 2018
Music videos directed by Steve Barron
RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Songs about Africa
Songs written by David Paich
Songs written by Jeff Porcaro
Toto (band) songs