Toto - Turn Back

Turn Back is the third studio album by American rock band Toto, originally released in January 1981 via Columbia Records.

Toto is an American rock band formed in 1977 in Los Angeles. Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard rock, R&B, blues, and jazz.

David Paich and Jeff Porcaro had played together as session musicians on several albums and decided to form a band. David Hungate, Steve Lukather, Steve Porcaro and Bobby Kimball were recruited before their first album release. The band enjoyed great commercial success in the late 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the band's eponymous debut released in 1978. With the release of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Toto IV (1982), Toto became one of the best-selling music groups of their era. They are best known for the Top 5 hits "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", and "Africa". Several changes to the line-up have been made over the years.

Turn Back was recorded with Geoff Workman who had worked with Queen, Foreigner, The Cars and Journey. The concept was to create an album that would move the band to a more rock arena sound base, with a heavier rock sound emphasis.

The album generated the first hit single in Japan “Goodbye Elenore”, which failed to make a significant dent in the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, reaching #107. The album peaked at #41 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart and failed to meet the record label’s expectations.

Steve Lukather talked in 2013 about the album: “…we wanted to prove we were an arena rock band. It’s probably the weirdest record we’ve done, certainly sonically, but we were really proud of it when it came out. It didn't really catch on -- over the years, it's sold, and now it's kind of a cult favorite with fans, but at the time it was kind of a stiff. And then we panicked -- we never even went on the road for that one. The record company was like, "Okay, guys. We let you do what you want to do. Are you gonna give us a hit record? Because if you don't, we’re gonna drop you…”

For Turn Back, the band were:

• Bobby Kimball          lead and backing vocals
• Steve Lukather         guitars, lead and backing vocals
• David Paich              keyboards, backing vocals
• Steve Porcaro          keyboards
• David Hungate         bass
• Jeff Porcaro              drums, percussion

This album is a 2020 reissue on standard black vinyl with reproduced artwork and remastered audio by Toto and Elliot Scheiner, pressed in Europe via Columbia Records.