Hold the Line

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"Hold the Line"
Single by Toto
from the album Toto
B-side "Takin' It Back"
Released October 2, 1979
Format 7"
Genre Piano rock, hard rock
Length 3:56
Label Columbia
Writer(s) David Paich
Toto singles chronology

"Hold the Line"
(1978)
"I'll Supply the Love
(1978)

Alternative Cover
German version

"Hold the Line" is a song written by David Paich and recorded by American rock group Toto. The song was the band's first single, and was featured on their debut eponymous album. It reached #5 in the US Billboard Charts[1] during the winter of 197879.

Content

Jeff Porcaro, the band's drummer, gave a definition for the song:

"'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... and it really crossed over a lot of lines.".[2]

Background and writing

David Paich about writing the song:

"It started out with the piano riff that is in the intro. I started playing this riff and I just couldn't stop playing it. I played it for days, and I started singing, "Hold the line, love isn't always on time." It was a phrase that just came into my head. . . . it was a blessing. (The words) came to me in the night, and then I went to the verse. I wrote it in 2 hours. Sometimes songs come quickly like that, and sometimes I spend 2 years trying to finish a song."

Jeff Porcaro on "Hold the Line", in a 1988 interview with Modern Drummer:

"That was me trying to play like Sly Stone's original drummer, Greg Errico, who played drums on "Hot Fun In The Summertime." The hi-hat is doing triplets, the snare drum is playing 2 and 4 backbeats, and the bass drum is on 1 and the & of 2. That 8th note on the second beat is an 8th-note triplet feel, pushed. 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." 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."

Several of the band members recall hearing "Hold the Line" for the first time on the radio:

"I flipped the first time I heard myself on the radio. My mom called me up and said, "Turn on KLOS." It was the song "Hold the Line," and I started running around the house in my underwear, screaming, "I'm on the radio!" My wife was cracking up. It was just a thrill." (Steve Lukather, Guitar Player magazine, April 1984)

Bobby Kimball had a similar experience when he heard Toto for the very first time on the radio:

"I was asleep, I had my alarm clock set for noon because we were gonna do something in the studio, some promo and when the alarm came on there was the radio and "Hold The Line" was playing. And my room was totally black and I was looking for the telephone and I called Paich and I heard him scream, he was living over there with his girlfriend and he was screaming around and falling over trying to get to the radio." Toto99.com

Live performances

The song has been a live staple at Toto shows. Lukather played the song live with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band during the summer of 2012. Bobby Kimball plays it every time during his live performances with his own band since 2009.

Charts and certifications

Charts (1978-1979) Peak
position
Australian Kent Music Report[3] 8
Belgian VRT Top 30 22
Canadian RPM Top Singles 5
Dutch Top 40[4] 25
Euro Hit 50 21
French Singles Chart 84
German Singles Chart[4] 23
Irish Singles Chart 24
Italian Singles Chart 19
New Zealand Singles Chart[4] 11
South African Singles Chart 1
Swedish Singles Chart[4] 3
U.K. Singles Chart 14
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 5

Year-End Chart

Chart (1979) Peak
position
South African Singles Chart 7
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 44
Canadian RPM Top Singles 62
Australian Kent Music Report 66
Italian Singles Chart 91

Sales and certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Canada (Music Canada)[5] Gold 75,000^
United States (RIAA)[6] Gold 1,000,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

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