BOBBY KIMBALL of TOTO
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HIT SINGLES INCLUDE
"Rosanna"
"Africa"
"Hold The Line"
"Make Believe"
"White Sister"
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Starting music at the age of 8 years old may seem a
bit odd to some, but that's when Bobby Kimball began playing and singing
with a band comprised of younger brothers of his oldest brother's band.
Bobby came from the Louisiana area and had several bands that played
clubs between an area from Phoenix, Arizona all the way to Florida. It
was while playing in one for these bands that Bobby received a phone
call that would change his life and career forever.
It seemed that after the singers from Three Dog Night left the band the
group members decided to form a band called S.S. Fools. Bobby was called
by a friend of his, John Smith, who played with Edgar Winter's White
Trash and asked to sing with their band. After signing with CBS records
and doing one album, the band just couldn't seem to get off the ground.
However, during this period with S.S. Fools, Bobby met three of the
members of the band that would catapult his career into another
categorical dimension.
These players, David Paich, David Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro had been
playing with the enormously successful band Boz Scaggs and were mainly
responsible for his hits like Low Down and Lido Shuffle.
David Paich and Jeff Porcaro mapped out a plan for a new band that would
set new records in the recording industry and the music community in
general. That band was called TOTO after Dorothy's little dog in The
Wizard of Oz. The members, David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather,
David Hungate, Steve Porcaro and Bobby Kimball embarked on a new sound
that challenged the abilities of even the finest of players and singers.
The first album TOTO was nominated at the Grammys as Best New Group. The
first single - "Hold The Line",
made Bobby's voice a signature of TOTO's music and launched several hits
thereafter, including songs like "I'll Supply The Love",
"White Sister", "Make Believe", "Africa"
and, of course, "Rosanna", the song on the TOTO IV album that
swept the 1983 Grammy show. The TOTO IV album was nominated for no less
than 9 Grammys and the band as a whole won a total of seven of these
categories.
After the fourth album and some conflicts with the band, Bobby decided
to move to Europe for a few years where he was asked to do an album for
Germany's top producer Frank Farian, The album was never officially
released in the USA, however it made the top ten charts in Europe with
the first single, a remake of Led Zepplin's Stairway To Heaven. Bobby
was then introduced to Michael Berresheim, another person who would
change his life and career. Michael and Bobby started a new record label
in Europe called MMS records. The label has experienced great success in
the few short years of its existence.
The latest product on the label is Bobby's first solo album named Rise
Up. The album has already been released in Europe and is enjoying a
successful entry into the European charts. Bobby says "This is my
first chance to express myself without having to go through five other
opinions, and I thought it was fun to make the final decisions this
time".
