“Baby He’s Your Man” from 1995’s Tambu is funky, hook-laden – and unfortunately overlooked by fans of Toto. Guitar great Steve Lukather handles a majority of the vocals on the album, but on this track performs in a duet with background singer Jenny Douglas-McRae.
Additionally, new drummer Simon Phillips punches the keys on the drum machine and David Paich performs a growling vocal vamp. Lukather also takes on the bass overdubs. The result is a funky piece of rock and roll which includes a growling guitar solo, Douglas-McRae’s always-soulful vocals and a weird, yet wonderful vocal ad-lib by Paich.
By the time Tambu was released, the music industry was going through a shift away from well-crafted and played AOR. For all its strengths, this album sold just over 600,000 copies – marking a major reversal of fortune for the typically multi-platinum-selling Toto. David Paich joked they even considered releasing “Baby He’s Your Man” under a pseudonym. (I think it was a joke.)
Unfortunately, this gem – and many others on Toto’s Tambu – has gone overlooked.
