DarioZg / Shutterstock.com
David Paich is a keyboardist and founder member of the American rock band Toto. He sang their most popular song “Africa”. Toto is a band of session musicians, thus David has a prolific session career playing on numerous albums. In this article, I am featuring ten songs David has played keyboards on including one song by his band Toto. David is joined by most of his original Toto bandmates on some of the non-Toto tracks on this list. I had previously featured two songs David Paich played on in my article “Ten Great Piano Rock Songs by Ten Different Singers”.
These Days - Jackson Browne (1973)
This song begins with just Jackson and his acoustic guitar with some slide guitar parts. It continues that way until just before the chorus when David Paich’s piano comes in at just under a minute. David’s piano is a welcome addition that makes the song whole. He gives good accompaniment including being a good match for David Lindley’s slide guitar.
Put Out the Light - Joe Cocker (1974)
This is a soulful rocker featuring David Paich’s piano, wacky guitars, horns and powerful backing vocals. Joe Cocker sings with such passion. While the piano isn’t the loudest instrument, it has a great presence including some glissandos. The saxophone is there throughout a lot of the song including some solos.
Doctor Wu - Steely Dan (1975)
This is a piano driven soft rock song with a jazz influence as Steely Dan are a jazz rock band. David stated that he played on this song, so I’m assuming that the piano part is his. David is joined by his future Toto bandmate Jeff Porcaro who also plays on the next two songs. There is a saxophone through sections of the song including a solo. The guitar part is subtle. The piano playing is cool and melodic. The sax and piano goes in a more jazz direction towards the end of the song.
Lido Shuffle - Boz Scaggs (1976)
This is a popular song by Boz Scaggs which is co-written with David Paich. Elton John is an influence of David Paich which comes through in this song as it sounds like an Elton John song including its piano. The song features the bass and drums in the first twenty seconds until all the instruments come in. There are horns which are most prominent during the chorus. David is playing all the keyboards on this song which include piano and synths. He is joined by another future Toto bandmate, bassist David Hungate. Boz sings powerfully with his high voice. There are prominent synth parts in the last minute of the song which David doubles with his piano. Having both piano and synths gives a foreshadow of Toto’s sound.
Manuela Run - Toto (1978)
I’m now including a song by David Paich’s band Toto. This is a song from their 1978 debut album (which also features their hit song “Hold the Line”) which he wrote, played on and sang lead vocals. It opens with David’s piano riff which is played throughout the song. David sings “round” in an interesting way. Bobby Kimball sings good backing vocals. It also features good synthesizer playing by Steve Porcaro and a guitar solo by Steve Lukather. It has a unique end with a few piano notes followed by a closing door. This song is both pop rock and progressive rock.
The Retreat - Elton John (1980)
This is a great Elton John ballad about the American Civil War. The guitar is played by fellow Toto member Steve Lukather. It has Elton’s piano and singing for up until the end of the first verse. The full band comes in from the first chorus featuring prominent organ by David Paich and interesting guitar parts by Steve Lukather. The organ continues throughout the song and adds to it. There is a synthesizer by James Newton Howard which comes in during the last minute of the song. The synthesizer goes back and forth with the organ and then with the guitar.
Allies - Heart (1983)
This song features David Paich on piano and synth. It was written by Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain and this song is somewhat reminiscent of the Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’” with its combination of piano and intense guitars. It opens with the piano and is soon joined by Ann Wilson’s voice. The strong guitars come in as brief interjections in the first verse before fully coming in during the chorus. Ann sings powerfully on this song, especially in the harder rocking parts. The verses are piano driven. There is a section with David’s piano playing with his synth which reminds me of Toto. This is an intense ballad featuring powerful rock piano.
New York Minute - Don Henley (1989)
This is an epic six and a half minute song which has a jazz influence. It opens with an orchestra that’s arranged by David Paich with flourishes of his piano. Following that there are keyboard notes which are soon joined by Pino Palladino’s bass and David’s piano. Jeff Porcaro’s drums and Pino’s bass have some jazz vibes. David’s piano too does this in the verses. Close to the two minute mark, Danny Kortchmar’s guitar brings rock to the song which goes away in the second verse and comes back for the chorus. African-American Christian vocal group Take 6 provide backing vocals during the chorus. At around the three minute and forty five second mark, the trumpet appears and has some notes throughout the remainder of the song.
There Is No Greater Love - Wayne Watson (1992)
As a Christian, I was pleased to find out that David Paich played on a Christian song. The opening orchestra notes are similar to the previous song. This song has the simple arrangement of piano and orchestra. Piano and orchestra without any guitar, bass and drums is not my favourite arrangement as that runs the risk of it being a boring ballad for me. Thankfully, that is not the case here. David plays his piano powerfully.
Please Forgive Me - Bryan Adams (1993)
David Paich’s acoustic piano comes for a short moment at the start of the song. What appears to be an electric piano replaces it until the chorus where the acoustic piano comes back. The acoustic piano is powerful when it returns. The chorus rocks with strong guitars and some hard hitting piano. This is a powerful rock ballad.
David has played on a variety of different rock styles featured here being pop rock, soft rock, hard rock, progressive rock, jazz rock and rock & roll. There is also a Christian song featured. These songs cover a twenty year period from 1973 to 1993. I’m a fan of piano in rock music and piano is featured in all of these songs. David played piano on all the songs except one which is played by Elton John. This is fitting as Elton is a hero of David’s. These songs showcase David Paich’s great piano & keyboard playing as well as his skills as a songwriter, singer, arranger and producer.
