Songoftheday 12/13/13 - I remember it was late one night in the middle of a dream, woke up in a pool of sweat thought I heard a scream...

Toto - "Stranger In Town"
from the album Isolation (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by the rock group Toto, who had dominated 1982 and 1983 with their multi-Grammy-winning album Toto IV, spinning off four top 40 pop singles with "Rosanna", "Make Believe", the #1 hit "Africa", and "I Won't Hold You Back". After the tour behind the album, lead singer Bobby Kimball became embroiled in legal trouble over drugs, and was subsequently fired from the group during the recording of their next album, Isolation. While new vocalist Fergie Fredericksen was brought in to replace Kimball, the first single from the new set had David Paich singing lead, with Kimball still in the group on backup. "Stranger In Town", written by Paich with drummer Jeff Porcaro, was accompanied by a high-concept video directed by Steve Barron based on the film Whistle Down The Wind, with a prison escapee on the run (and new singer Fredericksen as the murder victim)...

"Stranger In Town" became Toto's lucky seventh top-40 pop hit in the US in December of 1984, while also landing at #7 on Billboard's mainstream rock radio chart (their highest ever rank). Internationally, the record went to #40 in Australia and #100 in England. The video was up for an MTV Video Music Award for direction on the second year of the awards.

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...and here's the band live on tour in 1985 with the song...

Up tomorrow: A Detroit rocker goes back to school.