''Lukather'' is the first solo studio album by Toto guitarist

Steve Lukather Steven Lee "Luke" Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to ...

. It was released in 1989 through CBS Records internationally but was never given a U.S. release due to tensions between Lukather and Columbia Records.

History

''Lukather'' came about after Toto had been recording and playing for eleven years and the band consensus was to take a break. Since Lukather had a number of songs written that did not appear on Toto albums, he decided to pursue a solo album. His intention was to present a dimension of his musical work that fans would not be familiar with, and he collaborated with many notable musicians. Among the people involved in ''Lukather'' were

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...

Steve Stevens Steve Stevens (born Steven Bruce Schneider; May 5, 1959) is an American guitarist. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to ''Top Gun'' – " Top Gun Anthem" – for ...

Richard Marx Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Marx's first number one success as a songwriter came in 1984 with " What About Me?", which was recorded by Kenny Rogers ...

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television an ...

, and fellow Toto members

Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer. He is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto, but is also one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundr ...

and

David Paich David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American keyboardist, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist, and secondary vocalist of the rock band Toto (band), Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrot ...

. Lukather has stated that the album is produced in a very simple manner and that one can hear a lot of ambient studio noise such as counting off on various tracks. He also credits bands

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

, and guitarists

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English musician. He rose to prominence as the guitarist of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, ...

, and

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

as influences on the album. Much of the material was debuted live in late 1988 when Lukather did a number of solo live dates in the Los Angeles area while the album was being recorded.

Track listing

# "Twist the Knife" (Lukather,

) – 5:24 # "Swear Your Love" (Lukather,

) – 4:00 # "Fall into Velvet" (Lukather,

Cy Curnin Cyril John Curnin (born 12 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter who serves as the lead vocalist for the new wave band, the Fixx. He has released five solo albums: ''Mayfly'' (2005), ''The Returning Sun'' (2007), ''Solar Minimum'' (20 ...

) – 9:03 # "Drive a Crooked Road" (Lukather,

Danny Kortchmar Daniel Kortchmar (born April 6, 1946), also known as Danny Kootch, is an American guitarist, session musician, producer and songwriter. His work with singer-songwriters such as Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Carole King, David Cassi ...

) – 5:20 # "Got My Way" (Lukather,

Randy Goodrum Charles Randolph Goodrum (born July 7, 1947) is an American songwriter, pianist, and producer. Goodrum wrote number one songs in each of the four decades after his first number one hit, 1978's " You Needed Me". Goodrum's songs have appeared on ...

Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record-producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitchel ...

) – 4:57 # "Darkest Night of the Year" (Lukather,

) – 5:19 # "Lonely Beat of My Heart" (Lukather,

Diane Warren Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has won an Academy Honorary Award, Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards and three consecutive ''Billboard'' Music Awards for Songwriter of the Year from 19 ...

) – 4:17 # "With a Second Chance" (Goodrum, Lukather) – 4:36 # "Turns to Stone" (Goodrum, Lukather) – 5:35 # "It Looks Like Rain" ( Tom Kelly, Lukather,

Billy Steinberg William Endfield Steinberg (born February 26, 1950) is an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly (musician), Tom Kelly; together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits "Like a Virgin ...

) – 4:21 # "Steppin' on Top of Your World" (Kortchmar, Lukather) – 5:41

Personnel

Adapted from album's

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

. *

– lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 2, 4, 6, 8), guitars (1–3, 5–9), guitar solo (3, 4, 10), "backwards" guitar (3), synthesizers (4, 7–9), keyboards (9), drum programming (9), acoustic guitar (10), 12-string guitar (10), lead guitar (11), rhythm guitar (11) Additional musicians * C.J. Vanston – keyboards (2) *

–

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

(3), synth solo (3) * Eric Rehl – synthesizers (3, 6), effects (3, 6) *

– synthesizers (5, 9), synthesizer programming (8), drum programming (8, 9), backing vocals (9) *

Aaron Zigman Aaron Zigman (born January 6, 1963) is a classically trained American composer, producer, arranger, songwriter, and musician who has scored music for films including '' The Notebook'', '' The Company Men'', '' Bridge to Terabithia'', '' John Q. ...

– synthesizers (5) *

Kim Bullard Kim Bullard (born May 6, 1955) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, record producer, and film composer. He has been making music since the 1970s and has performed extensively as a keyboard player with musical acts such as Elton John and Crosb ...

– keyboards (7) *

–

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

(7) * Jai Winding – keyboards (10) *

– guitars (3), guitar solo (3) *

– rhythm guitar (4, 11), backing vocals (4), keyboards (11), percussion (11),

sequencing In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...

(11) *

– guitars (5, 10) *

– bass (1) *

Neil Stubenhaus Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist. Career He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. In one of his early bands, The Neighbourhood in 1969, he played with future Kiss guitarist Vinnie V ...

– bass (2, 7) * Will Lee – bass (3, 6) * John Pierce – bass (4, 11) *

Randy Jackson Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive, television presenter and musician, best known as a judge on ''American Idol'' from 2002 to 2013. Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing b ...

– bass (5, 10) *

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. He rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coalesced into a group in its own right, The Section, which supported so many of Asylu ...

– bass (9) * Carlos Vega – drums (1) *

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to ...

– drums (2) *

Thommy Price Thommy Price (born December 9, 1956) is an American musician. He has played drums in a number of bands, including Scandal, Billy Idol, Blue Öyster Cult, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and is an in-demand session drummer. History Price was ...

– drums (3, 6) *

– drums (4, 11) * John Keane – drums (5, 7, 10), backing vocals (5, 9) *

Lenny Castro Lenny Castro (born September 19, 1956) is an American percussionist from the Los Angeles area. He is one of the most prolific percussionists of all time, appearing on hundreds of albums, including those by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, Maroon ...

– percussion (1, 3, 5, 10) * Warren Ham – backing vocals (1),

ad-libs In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The roughly synonymous phrase ('in acc ...

(1) *

– backing vocals (2, 7) * Cindy Mizelle – backing vocals (3), ad-libs (3) *

Stan Lynch Stanley Joseph Lynch (born May 21, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the original drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for 18 years until his departure in 1994. Early years Lynch was born in Cincinn ...

– backing vocals (4, 11) * Tom Kelly – backing vocals (5, 10) * Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals (7) *

Ivan Neville Ivan Neville (born August 19, 1959) is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of Aaron Neville and nephew to the other members of The Neville Brothers. Career Neville has released four solo albums and ...

– backing vocals (12)

Production

* Steve Lukather – producer * Eddie Van Halen – producer (1) * Richard Marx – producer (2) * Steve Stevens – producer (3, 6) * Danny Kortchmar – producer (4, 11) * Randy Goodrum – producer (lead vocal on 5), producer (8, 9) * Richie Zito – producer (7) * Tom Kelly – producer (10) * Billy Steinberg – producer (10) * Michael Bosley – assistant engineer * Charlie Brocco – assistant engineer * Rick Clifford – assistant engineer * Paul Dieter – assistant engineer * Ken Felton – assistant engineer * Clark Germain – assistant engineer * Mike Kloster – assistant engineer * Jay Lean – assistant engineer * Bob Loftus – assistant engineer * Danny Mormando – assistant engineer * Duane Seykora – assistant engineer * Brett Swain – assistant engineer * Mike Tacci – assistant engineer * Shari Sutcliffe – production coordinator, music contractor * An Rafferty – art direction, design * Jeff Katz – photography

References

External links

Album information
{{Authority control 1989 debut albums Steve Lukather albums Albums produced by Richard Marx Albums produced by Richie Zito CBS Records albums