Hold the Line

Toto had been formed in Los Angeles in 1977 by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, who had worked together as session musicians, and the group recruited David Hungate, Steve Lukather, Steve Porcaro and Bobby Kimball ahead of their first album. Paich wrote "Hold the Line" for that 1978 debut, and he found it easy to develop. He began with a piano riff one night, started singing "Hold the line, love isn't always on time" over it, and finished the verses two hours later. The title came from his high school days, when his parents owned the first rotary phone on the block. Juggling three girlfriends, he sat at the dinner table while all three called at once, leaving every line flashing, and had to place them on hold to speak to each in turn.

Columbia Records released the track in September 1978 as both the album's lead single and the band's first. It reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 in the UK. Jeff Porcaro modeled his drum part on Greg Errico of Sly Stone's band, explaining that the hi-hat played triplets against backbeats on the snare, a Sly groove meshed with what he called a harder rock caveman approach.

Steve Lukather's guitar solo arrived after the second chorus, played in one take apart from its ending. Unhappy with that final stretch, he worked with Paich on ideas for the closing lick, which Paich wanted layered with harmonies, so Lukather multitracked the part. He later recalled running around his house in his underwear after his mother phoned to say the song was playing on KLOS.