TOTOS AFRICA COVERED AGAIN

AFRICA IS COVERED BY WEEZER

Esquire has it right in this article, Toto's song Africa is timeless! Earlier this year Weezer released a cover of AFRICA and it has created some waves (more than just sound waves) with them Millenials. Turns out kids today like the song - see, timeless!


HERE IS THE SONG - WEEZER did a great job...kept it very close to the original, only adding a little chunky distorted guitar where warranted.

Funny to hear about Weezer again. I love/loved Weezer.

Got out the old BLUE ALBUM after seeing the cover of AFRICA

Now kiddies of today will get the jokes about blessing the rain...





Weezer also released a cover or Toto's soft rock hit Rosanna. The cover made the #2 chart spot in the UK...geez, TOTO is on a roll.  

This version of ROSANNA is bang on - it's like I'm listening to TOTO

In response to all these covers TOTO is now covering a Weezer song. Apparently TOTO thought Hash Pipe would be a good choice?

Weezer is a 90s alternative band

Toto's cover of Weezer's song is interesting. For some reason I can't take is seriously. It sounds great, but, The Toto (or is it TOTO 2 now?) is not a grunge/alternative rock band...they are missing that certain something?

If I had any say, I'd tell TOTO to cover Weezer's Buddy Holly (now, that song is timeless)!

Keep up the good work WEEZER & TOTO!


ANOTHER 80s GUY THAT IS STILL ROCKING - RICK ASTLEY

BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AFRICA

TOTO AFRICA MEMES

Toto's song Africa hit the number 1 spot on the billboard charts in 1983 and has been misheard by millions worldwide. There have been countless car karaoke mistakes with the lyrics. And, it's gone on long enough. The lyrics are "I BLESS the rains down in Africa!" BLESS! BLESS!
Not MISS!
Not KISS!
Not FELT!
Not SAW!

Toto's Africa lyrics are mixed up by all

Even Dads mistake the lyrics to AFRICA

TOTO says it best...

Right on Toto Bless The Rain

Get it? TOTO.

Rumour has it that some of the rain Toto blessed fell onto the top of Mount Kilimanjaro - it froze and is still there to this very day!

Toto blessed the rain in Africa and some of it was frozen on the peak of Kilimanjaro

Apparently, the band wrote the song about Africa, yet, had never actually been to the continent. I guess they blessed the rain after they sold their millionth copy of TOTO IV. At that point they believed they were rock gods - soft rock gods!

TOTO - Soft Rock Gods of 1983

The song was a huge hit in Canada which may be why thirty odd years later Karl Wolf did a remix /cover of the song which had a lot of airplay in Canada (hitting the 2 spot on the Canada Hot 100 chart).

The original by TOTO - you decide which one is better.

I will leave you with one last question:

I believe the rain will win.

MORE FUNNY 80s MUSIC MEMES

80s SONGS COVERED YEARS LATER

COVER TO COVER - GENIUS OF LOVE

In 1981 the Tom Tom Club had some great success, especially in the dance scene, with their song "Genius of Love" which was a number one hit on the dance charts!

TOM TOM CLUB

This would have been a great show eh?

The song is catchy! To me it is timeless. You don't hear it and say, 'oh ya, it has that 80s sound'. No, you wouldn't say that. You might say, 'kinda disco', but, again it's hard to label. Which makes it timeless. Which I guess is why 25 years after it was first released a big star did a remake of it.

Mariah Carey and Old Dirty Bastard (aka ODB) remix the song using samples from Genius of Love. Not to be too much of a Dad joke, but, they totally bastardized (in an old dirty way) the song, haha. Oh well, just shows how great the music of the 80s really was. That it is still hip and hoppin' with the kids of today.

Old dirty bastard

The song was also used in a couple of commercials and lately in the movie Anchorman Two. So, that just tells you how cool the song really is!

>

Tom Tom Club released a live CD recently

FOR MORE COVER TO COVER SONGS

COVER to COVER - KIDS IN AMERICA | Kim Wilde

Let's take a look at an 80s song and the subsequent covers of that song - we'll call this series of blog posts Cover 2 Cover.

 

Today's song: Kids in America

 

This song was Kim Wylde's debut. Kids of America was a huge hit for her in Europe, especially in Finland (for some reason) where it was a #1 hit. All across Europe it peaked at 2 (UK), 3 & 4 on all the charts. 

 

 

But, for some reason it took a year for the song to make its way across the Atlantic to the US where it had marginal success peaking at around #30. Kim was apparently given a hard time about some of the lyrics, "New York to East California"...there really is no 'East California'. California is about the furthest west you can go in the USA. Who knows if that was the reason, but whatever it was this song didn't perform as well as it did in Europe. And unlike other charting songs of the time this one did not make it into the standard songs played years later on 'classic rock' or '80s hits' radio stations. At least in North America.

 

http://bit.ly/2m4BAbM

 

 

Fast forward twenty years. 1995. A new movie is released that makes some major waves - the movie Clueless. Which was essentially about ditsy/valleygirl teens in America, so what better song to go along with the movie than 'Kids in America'? A cover of the song done by The Muffs was the opening track in this movie...and I'm kind of embarrassed to say, this was the first time I recall ever hearing this song. It wasn't until years later that I heard the Kim Wilde original. And I call myself an 80s music lover?

 

 

 

Even with the added boost of the movie it was still very rare to hear Kids in America on the radio.

 

Even though the song is now almost forty years old (ouch) it is still making the rounds. Every once in a while it gets covered - like by the Donnas.

 

 

 

It is also a song on that video game ROCK BAND.

 

 

 

Personally, I love this song. I have it on high rotation on my internet radio station and I promote it any chance I get. I think it's a classic, simple song that will never get old. The Muff's version rocks too!