''Hydra'' is the second studio album by

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Toto, released in 1979. It reached #37 on the Billboard Pop Albums. While most of the album's singles failed to make any impact in the charts, " 99", a song inspired by the 1971 science fiction movie ''

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'', reached #26 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In 2013, Toto's guitarist Steve Lukather said of the album:

You get successful with something, it’s always the whole thing where you don’t want to repeat it. So we tried something a little different with ''Hydra'', and it sold well, although it might have been a little bit rushed for us. And here's some irony for you -- ''
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'' beat up on the first album, and then when they reviewed ''Hydra'', the opening line of the review is something like, "It doesn’t have the magic of the first album." We're immediately pissing ourselves on the floor with laughter. Who are these cats? Do they think we have amnesia? We were just following our muses, man. We were following our own rules and we didn't want to listen to anybody.

Reception

Though a commercial success, ''Hydra'' was a far less popular album than the band's top-selling debut.

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suggested this was due to Toto's failure to establish a distinctive, recognizable sound on either ''Hydra'' or their debut, which would have allowed listeners to immediately identify Toto's major hits with the band themselves. They also speculated that most listeners were not familiar with the film (namely, ''

'') on which the song "99" was based, and thus found the lyrics hopelessly cryptic, preventing the single from becoming as big a hit as it might have been. Critical response to the album was mixed.

's retrospective review made little judgment on the quality (noting only as an aside that the songs were "well-played"), instead discussing why it had failed to match the commercial success of their debut.

Track listing

Personnel

Toto

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 * Steve Lukather –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s, lead and backing vocals * Steve Porcaro –

synthesizers 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 ...

, electronics, synthesizer programming *

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 ...

– piano, keyboards, lead and backing vocals *

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 The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, guitars *

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 A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Additional musicians

* Lenny Castro – percussion *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthesi ...

– synthesizer samples * Roger Linn – assistant synthesizer programming *

Marty Paich Martin Louis Paich (January 23, 1925 – August 12, 1995) was an American pianist, composer, arranger, record producer, music director, and conductor. As a musician and arranger he worked with jazz musicians Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Kento ...

– string arrangements

Production

* Produced by Tom Knox, Reggie Fisher and Toto. * Engineered and Mixed by Tom Knox and Dana Latham. * Assistant Engineer – Stephen McManus * Mastered by David Donnelly * Art Direction – Jim Hagopian, Tony Lane and Jeff Porcaro. * Design – Philip Garris * Photography – Jim Hagopian * Calligraphy – Mike Manoogian * Management – The Fitzgerald Hartley Co.

Singles

* " 99" / "Hydra" * "St George and the Dragon" / "A Secret Love" * "All Us Boys" / "Hydra" ''(released in US)''

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

External links

"Hydra" at discogs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hydra (Album) 1979 albums Toto (band) albums Columbia Records albums Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders Funk rock albums by American artists Hard rock albums by American artists Rhythm and blues albums by American artists