''Lukather'' is the first solo studio album by Toto guitarist

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 ...

, released on August 28, 1989 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 ...

History

''Lukather'' came about after Toto had been recording and playing for eleven years and the band consensus was to take a break. Since Lukather had a number of songs written that did not appear on Toto albums, he decided to pursue a solo album. His intention was to present a dimension of his musical work that fans would not be familiar with, and he collaborated with many notable musicians. Among the people involved in ''Lukather'' were

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...

Steve Stevens Steve Stevens (born Steven Bruce Schneider; May 5, 1959) is an American guitarist. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to ''Top Gun'' – "Top Gun Anthem" – for w ...

Richard Marx Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American adult contemporary music, adult contemporary and pop rock singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Marx's Richard Marx (album), self-titled debut album went tri ...

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as his film scores fo ...

, and fellow Toto members

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Lukather has stated that the album is produced in a very simple manner and that one can hear a lot of ambient studio noise such as counting off on various tracks. He also credits bands

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

, and guitarists

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

, and

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

as influences on the album. Much of the material was debuted live in late 1988 when Lukather did a number of solo live dates in the Los Angeles area while the album was being recorded.

Track listing

# "Twist the Knife" (Lukather,

) – 5:24 # "Swear Your Love" (Lukather,

) – 4:00 # "Fall into Velvet" (Lukather,

Cy Curnin Cyril John Curnin (born 12 December 1957, Wimbledon, England) is a singer/songwriter and musician and is the lead vocalist for the new wave music group, the Fixx. As a songwriter, he has co-written over a dozen songs that have appeared on the ...

) – 9:03 # "Drive a Crooked Road" (Lukather,

Danny Kortchmar Daniel "Danny Kootch" Kortchmar (born April 6, 1946) is an American guitarist, session musician, producer and songwriter. Kortchmar's work with singer-songwriters such as Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Carole King, David Cassidy, ...

) – 5:20 # "Got My Way" (Lukather,

Randy Goodrum Charles Randolph Goodrum (born July 7, 1947) is an American songwriter, pianist, and producer. Goodrum has written number one songs in each of the four decades since his first number one hit, 1978's "You Needed Me". Goodrum's songs have appeare ...

Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitch ...

) – 4:57 # "Darkest Night of the Year" (Lukather, Stevens) – 5:19 # "Lonely Beat of My Heart" (Lukather,

Diane Warren Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has received several awards including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three ''Billboard'' Music Awards and an Honorary Academy Award. Wa ...

) – 4:17 # "With a Second Chance" (Goodrum, Lukather) – 4:36 # "Turns to Stone" (Goodrum, Lukather) – 5:35 # "It Looks Like Rain" ( Tom Kelly, Lukather,

Billy Steinberg William Endfield Steinberg (born February 26, 1950) is an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly; together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits " Like a Virgin" by Madonna (1984), ...

) – 4:21 # "Steppin' on Top of Your World" (Kortchmar, Lukather) – 5:41

Personnel

Adapted from album's

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

. *

– lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 2, 4, 6, 8), guitars (1–3, 5-9), guitar solo (3, 4, 10), "backwards" guitar (3), synthesizers (4, 7–9), keyboards (9), drum programming (9), acoustic guitar (10), 12-string guitar (10), lead guitar (11), rhythm guitar (11) Additional musicians * C.J. Vanston – keyboards (2) *

–

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

(3), synth solo (3) * Eric Rehl – synthesizers (3, 6), effects (3, 6) *

– synthesizers (5, 9), synthesizer programming (8), drum programming (8, 9), backing vocals (9) * Aaron Zigman – synthesizers (5) *

Kim Bullard Kim Bullard is an American keyboardist, songwriter, record producer, and film composer. He has been making music since the 1970s and has performed extensively as a keyboard player with musical acts such as Elton John and Crosby, Stills, & Nash. ...

– keyboards (7) *

– organ (7) * Jai Winding – keyboards (10) *

– guitars (3), guitar solo (3) *

– rhythm guitar (4, 11), backing vocals (4), keyboards (11), percussion (11),

sequencing In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...

(11) *

– guitars (5, 10) *

– bass (1) * Neil Stubenhaus – bass (2, 7) *

Will Lee William Lee (born William Lubovsky; August 6, 1908 – December 7, 1982) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television and film roles, but was best known for playing Mr. Hooper, the original store proprietor of the eponymous Hooper' ...

– bass (3, 6) * John Pierce – bass (4, 11) *

Randy Jackson Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive and television presenter, perhaps best known as a judge on ''American Idol'' from 2002 to 2013. Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing bas ...

– bass (5, 10) *

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. Sklar rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coaleced into a group in its own right, The Section. This group of musicians so frequ ...

– bass (9) *

Carlos Vega Carlos Vega (December 7, 1956 – April 7, 1998) was a Cuban-born Los Angeles-based session drummer best known for his performances with James Taylor. As a part of the L.A. studio scene from the late 1970s through the 1990s, Vega contributed to ...

– drums (1) *

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and graphic artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to ...

– drums (2) *

Thommy Price Thommy Price (born December 9, 1956) is an American musician. He has played drums in a number of bands, including Scandal, Billy Idol, Blue Öyster Cult, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and is an in-demand session drummer. History Price was a ...

– drums (3, 6) *

– drums (4, 11) * John Keane – drums (5, 7, 10), backing vocals (5, 9) *

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 ...

– percussion (1, 3, 5, 10) *

Warren Ham Warren Ham (born 1957) is an American multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for playing with Kansas (band), Kansas (1982), Toto (band), Toto (1986-1988, and since 2017) and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Ringo Starr (since 2015). During the ...

– backing vocals (1),

ad-libs In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The r ...

(1) *

– backing vocals (2, 7) * Cindy Mizelle – backing vocals (3), ad-libs (3) *

Stan Lynch Stanley Joseph "Stan" Lynch (born May 21, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the original drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for 18 years until his departure in 1994. Early years Lynch was born in ...

– backing vocals (4, 11) * Tom Kelly – backing vocals (5, 10) * Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals (7) *

Ivan Neville Ivan Neville (born August 19, 1959) is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of Aaron Neville and nephew to members of The Neville Brothers. Career He has released four solo (music), solo albums and ha ...

– backing vocals (12)

Production

* Steve Lukather – producer * Eddie Van Halen – producer (1) * Richard Marx – producer (2) * Steve Stevens – producer (3, 6) * Danny Kortchmar – producer (4, 11) * Randy Goodrum – producer (lead vocal on 5), producer (8, 9) * Richie Zito – producer (7) * Tom Kelly – producer (10) * Billy Steinberg – producer (10) * Michael Bosley – assistant engineer * Charlie Brocco – assistant engineer * Rick Clifford – assistant engineer * Paul Dieter – assistant engineer * Ken Felton – assistant engineer * Clark Germain – assistant engineer * Mike Kloster – assistant engineer * Jay Lean – assistant engineer * Bob Loftus – assistant engineer * Danny Mormando – assistant engineer * Duane Seykora – assistant engineer * Brett Swain – assistant engineer * Mike Tacci – assistant engineer * Shari Sutcliffe – production coordinator, music contractor * An Rafferty – art direction, design * Jeff Katz – photography

References

External links

Album information
{{Authority control 1989 debut albums Steve Lukather albums Albums produced by Richard Marx Albums produced by Richie Zito CBS Records albums