Steve Porcaro stands out as a versatile American keyboardist, songwriter, and composer whose career has covered an extensive range of pop and rock from the mid-1970s onward. He gained his widest recognition as a founding member of Toto alongside brothers Jeff and Mike Porcaro. The band delivered major successes such as “Rosanna” and “Africa,” securing three Grammy Awards in the process. As a sought-after session player, Porcaro has appeared on numerous releases by artists including Elton John, Earth, Wind & Fire, Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin, and Yes. He also co-wrote Michael Jackson’s 1983 single “Human Nature” and contributed keyboards throughout the accompanying Thriller album. Porcaro stepped away from Toto in the late 1980s to concentrate on film and television scoring, yet he kept working as a session musician for an extended period. After scoring the FX series Justified, he returned to Toto briefly in 2015 and issued his debut solo effort, Someday/Somehow, the next year.
Although born in Hartford, Connecticut, Porcaro grew up in Los Angeles amid a family steeped in music. He began on drums under the guidance of his father, an experienced jazz drummer, before shifting to piano. By the mid-1970s his older brothers Jeff and Mike had already secured places in the Los Angeles session scene on drums and bass. Porcaro soon joined them, landing his first major assignment as touring keyboardist for Gary Wright. When Jeff and David Paich assembled Toto in 1977, they brought Steve into a collective already populated by top session talent. Columbia issued the group’s self-titled debut in late 1978; it achieved platinum status, aided by the single “Hold the Line.” Over the following years Porcaro balanced two additional Toto albums with an expanding reputation as one of Los Angeles’s premier keyboardists, accumulating credits with Bette Midler, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Earth, Wind & Fire, Pablo Cruise, and numerous others. The year 1982 marked a breakthrough when the band’s fourth album earned widespread acclaim and swept the Grammys for Album of the Year, Record of the Year with “Rosanna,” and Producer of the Year. Around the same time several Toto members participated in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, on which Porcaro co-wrote “Human Nature” and performed synthesizer parts. Further 1980s highlights included his contributions to the 1985 charity single “We Are the World” and Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.”
Porcaro departed Toto in 1987 but stayed loosely connected to the band’s studio activities for a while afterward. He continued session work with Michael Jackson, Jefferson Airplane, Yes, and Chicago, while also moving into soundtrack composition for the 1996 film Metro and series such as Raines, Football Wives, and Justified. Early in the 2010s he rejoined Toto, then primarily a touring outfit. On the 2015 release Toto XIV he supplied substantial input and took lead vocals on one track. The following year he unveiled his first solo album, Someday/Somehow. By then the only surviving Porcaro brother, he incorporated earlier recordings of Mike and Jeff into several songs. He remained with Toto through the remainder of the decade before stepping aside once more to focus on original material intended for a second solo project.
