16: The Things That You Say That You'll Do

16. "Hold the Line" by Toto {#5; 10/78} [Video: Hold the Line.]

Plain and simple, this is an absolutely well-crafted pop/rock song. It's well written. It's well played. It's well sung. It's about as close to perfect as a pop/rock song can be. (My main nitpick would be with the lyrics. "Hold the line. Love isn't always on time." What exactly does that mean? I don't know. Not that it really matters.) (My second nitpick? Couldn't they have found some place in the song to throw in a few hand claps?)

There are so many great things about this song, and that's not even counting the fun from the video. (I mean, I could mention that the lead singer has a Dan Dierdorf/corrupt-cop-from-an-episode-of-McCloud vibe to him. Or how the guitar player is wearing Doug Henning/Mork from Ork rainbow suspenders. Or that the keyboard player has good Jeff Lynne facial hair, but needs to work on his afro. I could, but why would I?)

No, the music itself has plenty of great features. Features like:
*The opening drums
*The opening piano pounding
*Great guitar riff
*Falsetto!
*Multiple "Ooo ooo ooos"
*Multiple "Whoa, whoa, whoas"
*More fun sing-along falsetto!
*Repeated falsetto! ("Love isn't, love isn't always on time!")
*"Whoa, whoa, whoa" ending.

It's just absolutely great!

COMING UP NEXT: It's Saturday? I'm sorry.