Africa (Toto song)
| "Africa" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
| Single by Toto | ||||||||||
| from the album Toto IV | ||||||||||
| B-side |
"Good for You" (US) "We Made It" (international) "Africa" (live) (1990 re-release) | |||||||||
| Released | May 10, 1982 | |||||||||
| Format | 7", CD | |||||||||
| Recorded | October 25, 1981 | |||||||||
| Genre | Soft rock[1] | |||||||||
| Length |
4:55 (album) 4:21 (edited) 7:05 (extended) | |||||||||
| Label | Columbia | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | David Paich, Jeff Porcaro | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Toto | |||||||||
| Toto singles chronology | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
"Africa" is a hit single by rock band Toto, and is one of the band's most recognizable songs. It was included on their 1982 album Toto IV, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1983 and number three on the UK Singles Chart the same month. The song was written by the band's keyboardist/vocalist David Paich and drummer Jeff Porcaro.
Background
The initial idea for the song came from David Paich. Jeff Porcaro explains the idea behind the song: "... a white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he's never been there, he can only tell what he's seen on TV or remembers in the past."[2]
David Paich said: "At the beginning of the '80s I watched a late night documentary on TV about all the terrible death and suffering of the people in Africa. It both moved and appalled me and the pictures just wouldn't leave my head. I tried to imagine how I'd feel about if I was there and what I'd do."[3]
Musically the song took quite some time to assemble, as Paich and Porcaro explain:
"On 'Africa' you hear a combination of marimba with GS 1. The kalimba is all done with the GS 1; it's six tracks of GS 1 playing different rhythms. I wrote the song on CS-80, so that plays the main part of the entire tune."[4]
"So when we were doing 'Africa', I set up a bass drum, snare drum and a hi-hat, and Lenny Castro set up right in front of me with a conga. We looked at each other and just started playing the basic groove. ... The backbeat is on 3, so it's a half-time feel, and it's 16th notes on the hi-hat. Lenny started playing a conga pattern. We played for five minutes on tape, no click, no nothing. We just played. And I was singing the bass line for 'Africa' in my mind, so we had a relative tempo. Lenny and I went into the booth and listened back to the five minutes of that same boring pattern. We picked out the best two bars that we thought were grooving, and we marked those two bars on tape...Maybe it would have taken two minutes to program that in the Linn, and it took about half an hour to do this. But a Linn machine doesn't feel like that!"
Music video
The music video was directed by Steve Barron.[5] In the video, a researcher in a library (portrayed by band member David Paich) tries to match a scrap of a picture to the book from which it was torn out. As he continues his search, a black female librarian (Jenny Douglas-McRae) working at a desk takes occasional notice of him, while a native in the surrounding jungle begins to close in on the library. When the researcher finds a book entitled Africa, the native throws a spear, 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 inter-cut with shots of a spinning globe and the band performing atop a stack of hardcover books; the book Africa is the top book of the stack.
This video also features Mike Porcaro on bass, replacing David Hungate who had already left Toto before the video was made.
In popular culture
The song was sung by Paich at the 2009 Millennium Development Goals Awards Ceremony.[6]
The song was used in the Top Gear Africa Special (Series 19, Episode 6 and 7).
"Africa" has also been adopted by the New England Revolution, an American professional association football club, as their anthem. It is played every match day and sung by the supporters.
In late summer of 2014 Foster Farms debuted a commercial featuring a choir of chickens clucking the music of Toto's "Africa".[7]
"Africa" is the unofficial anthem of Lawrence University's annual Great Midwest Trivia Contest.[8]
The song is featured in the opening sequence of the Scrubs episode "My Way Home" (Season 5, Episode 7). The band's name represents one of many allusions to The Wizard of Oz, which is one of the recurring themes of the episode.
In the TV show Community, Troy and Abed sing "Africa" with Professor Bauer in Anthropology 101's End Tag (Season 2, Episode 1).
Instrumentals of the song briefly play in the American Dad episode titled "Camp Refoogee".
"Africa" is featured in the Family Guy episode "Internal Affairs" (Season 10, Episode 23). It is the song that was playing when Joe and Bonnie first met, and becomes their song.
In 2012 "Africa" was listed by music magazine NME 32nd place on its list of "50 Most Explosive Choruses".[9]
Personnel
- Steve Lukather – backing vocals, guitar
- Bobby Kimball – backing vocal
- David Hungate – bass
- Jeff Porcaro – drums, percussion
- Steve Porcaro – synthesizer
- David Paich – lead and backing vocals, piano, synthesizer
Guest musicians
- Jim Horn – recorders
- Lenny Castro – congas, percussion
- Joe Porcaro – marimbas, percussion
- Timothy B. Schmitt – backing vocal
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
Sales and certifications
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It also reached number 1 on the New Zealand iTunes Charts on 15 May 2013.
Versions and samples
Covers
- 2009: Perpetuum Jazzile, a cappella group from Slovenia, on their album Africa, with more than 15 million YouTube views[18]
- 2009: Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, from the EP The Dreaming.[19]
- 2012: Progressive metal band Chaos Divine released a cover version as a single with two original b-sides.
Samples
- Italian-American trance DJ and producer Louie DeVito sampled "Africa" in his song "2 Take Me Away".
- American pop singer JoJo sampled "Africa" in her song "Anything", which served as the third single from her 2006 sophomore studio album, The High Road.
- American pop/R&B singer Jason Derülo sampled "Africa" in his song "Fight for You" from his 2011 sophomore studio album, Future History.
- American rapper Wiz Khalifa sampled "Africa" in his song "Huey Newton".
- American rapper Ja Rule sampled "Africa" in his song "Reign".
- American rapper Nas sampled "Africa" in his song "New World".
- American rapper Xzibit sampled "Africa" in his song "Heart Of Man", which is featured on his 2002 album Man vs. Machine.
- American a cappella group Straight No Chaser sampled "Africa" in their cover of "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
- Australian progressive metal band Chaos Divine recorded a cover of "Africa" as a single in 2012.
- Lebanese-Canadian pop/R&B singer Karl Wolf sampled "Africa" in his own remake, also called "Africa", with added lyrics and musical composition and arrangement. The Karl Wolf song also featured a rap section by the Canadian-Bahamian rapper Culture. The track served as the first single from his 2007 sophomore studio album, Bite the Bullet, and reached number 2 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100.[20]
- The song was featured in the Chuck season 2 episode "Chuck Versus the Best Friend."
- The song was featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as part of the "Emotion 98.3" playlist.
- The song was featured twice in the Family Guy episode "Internal Affairs".
- The song was featured in the Cleveland Show episode "How Cleveland got his groove back".
- American rapper Rich Homie Quan sampled "Africa" in his song "Reloaded".
- The song was used in an advertisement for Castle Lager in South Africa in the late 1990s.[21]
See also
- List of RPM number-one singles of 1983
- List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1983
References
- ↑ "Explore: Soft Rock | Top Songs". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 12 November 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ "Official TOTO Website - Encyclopedia". www.toto99.com. 2007-04-18. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ↑ "Official TOTO Website - Releases". www.toto99.com. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ↑ Keyboard, 09/1995
- ↑ "Toto - "Africa"". mvdbase.com. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ↑ "David Paich to perform at United Nations M.D.G. Awards". Totonetwork.com. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
- ↑ "Foster Farms TV Commercial, 'Africa'". iSpot.tv. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
- ↑ Armstrong, Hillary (1 January 2014). "Extreme Trivia and Tradition: Lawrence University’s Great Midwest Trivia Contest". Scene Magazine. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
- ↑ "50 Most Explosive Choruses - #32 Toto - Africa - NME.COM". NME.COM.
- ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Steffen Hung. "Toto - Africa". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ↑ "UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts". everyHit.com. 2000-03-16. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ↑ "Canadian single certifications – Toto – Africa". Music Canada.
- ↑ "Italian single certifications – Toto – Africa" (in Italian). Federation of the Italian Music Industry. Select Online in the field Sezione. Enter Toto in the field Filtra. The certification will load automatically
- ↑ "New Zealand single certifications – Toto – Africa". Recording Industry Association of New Zealand.
- ↑ "British single certifications – Toto – Africa". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Africa in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select single in the field By Format. Select Silver in the field By Award. Click Search
- ↑ "American single certifications – Toto – Africa". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
- ↑ Glasba za dobro jutro: Perpetuum Jazzile, Africa. Delo, 7 August 2013, Accessed on 17 September 2013.
- ↑ "WIUO - The Orchestra". ukulele.co.nz.
- ↑ "Karl Wolf". billboard.com.
- ↑ "Top Ten South African adverts from our younger days". The South African. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
Further reading
External links
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
