Rosanna (song)

The song was written by David Paich, who has said that the song is based on numerous girls he had known. As a joke, the band members initially played along with the common assumption that the song was based on Rosanna Arquette, who was dating Toto keyboard player Steve Porcaro at the time. Arquette herself played along with the joke, commenting in an interview that the song was about "my showing up at 4 a.m., bringing them juice and beer at their sessions".^[10]

In the verses, the key is changed from G major to F major, accompanied on the original recording by the lead vocalist changing from Steve Lukather to Bobby Kimball.^[11]

The drum pattern is known as a "half-time shuffle", and shows "definite jazz influence",^[12] featuring ghost notes and derived from the combination of the Purdie shuffle, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's shuffle on "Fool in the Rain", and the Bo Diddley beat. The Purdie shuffle can be prominently heard on Steely Dan's track "Home at Last" from Aja, which Jeff Porcaro cited as an influence.^[13][14]

The overlapping keyboard solos in the middle were created by David Paich and Steve Porcaro recording a multitude of keyboard lines (some of which were cut from the final recording) using a Micro-Composer, a Minimoog, Yamaha CS-80s, Prophets, a Hammond organ, and a GS1, among other instruments.^[11] Paich credits Porcaro with both coming up with the concept for the segment and playing a majority of the parts.^[11] The album version starts with the drum beat only then kicks into the rest of the melody, then ends with two renditions of the song's chorus and goes into a musical interlude and fades out from there. According to Lukather, this final instrumental section was a spontaneous jam during the recording session: "... the song was supposed to end but Jeff carried on and Dave started playing the honky-tonk piano and we all just followed on".^[11] The single edit goes right into the melody at the beginning, then the song fades out during the first singing of the chorus at the end.

Steve Porcaro and Lukather describe it as "the ultimate Toto track".^[15] Cash Box said that it "is a varied palette of pleasing pop shades".^[16] Billboard said "The arrangement is more complex than anything Toto's known for, mixing rock power chords with softer passages".^[17]

Classic Rock History critic Brian Kachejian rated it as Toto's greatest song, saying that it was "Easily one of the 1980's best singles".^[18]

The West Side Story-inspired video was directed by Steve Barron and set in a stylized urban streetscape, with Rosanna represented by a dancer whose bright red dress contrasts with the gray surroundings. The band plays within a chain-link fence enclosure. Cynthia Rhodes is featured as the lead dancer Rosanna, which led to her being cast in Staying Alive the following year.^[19] Patrick Swayze was also uncredited as a dancer in the music video and he and Rhodes would both star in the movie Dirty Dancing.^[20]

Despite not playing on the actual recording, new bassist Mike Porcaro (brother of Jeff and Steve) appears in the video, as original Toto bass player David Hungate left before the video was made. Lenny Castro is also featured with the band as a percussionist.^[21]

Adapted from album's liner notes.^[22]

Toto

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

Additional musicians

• Lenny Castro – congas, tambourine
• Tom Scott – alto saxophone
• Jim Horn – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
• Jerry Hey – trumpet
• Gary Grant – trumpet
• Jimmy Pankow – trombone
• Tom Kelly – backing vocals

Production

• David Paich – co-production, horn arrangements
• Jeff Porcaro – co-production
• Jerry Hey – horn arrangements
• Al Schmitt – recording/tracking
• Greg Ladanyi – mixing
• George Marino – mastering

In May 2018, the American rock band Weezer released a cover of the track as a viral marketing stunt after fans requested that they cover "Africa", another song by Toto.^[47] The social media effort, spearheaded by the teenage-run Twitter account @WeezerAfrica, gained significant traction and widespread media attention.^[48][49]

Weezer's cover of "Rosanna" was released as a non-album digital single and subsequently included as a B-side on 7-inch vinyl release of the band's cover of "Africa" which they released just a few days after "Rosanna", fulfilling the original viral request.^[47][50]

Toto's guitarist Steve Lukather publicly stated he was "flattered" by Weezer's cover.^[48] In a reciprocal move, Toto recorded their own cover of the Weezer track "Hash Pipe" and released it in August 2018.^[50]