1982 · Behind the Songs
The third single from Toto IV — released between two giants and remembered by far too few.
Every legend has a lost middle chapter. On Toto IV, “Rosanna” opened the door and “Africa” walked through it into history. Between them came “Make Believe,” the album’s third single, released in late 1982 — a bright, rolling pop song that did everything right and still got swallowed by its siblings’ shadows.
David Paich wrote it and Bobby Kimball sang it, and both were at the peak of their powers. The track has all the hallmarks of the Toto IV sessions: stacked harmonies, a rhythm section that never wastes a beat, and a chorus built for car radios. It reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1983 — a genuine hit by any normal measure, rendered all but invisible by the two multi-format monsters flanking it.
Context made the timing cruel. Toto IV would go on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, and “Rosanna” took Record of the Year; by the time “Make Believe” arrived at radio, the album was already a phenomenon and programmers were still feasting on “Africa.” A third single, however good, was always going to be dessert after a banquet.
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The song also marks a quiet farewell. Kimball — the voice of “Hold the Line” and “Rosanna” — would leave the band in 1984, making “Make Believe” one of his last singles with Toto. Hearing it now, his lead vocal carries an extra charge: the sound of a singer giving a supposedly minor single the full force of a career performance.
Strip away the chart story and the song stands on its own — proof of how deep Toto IV really ran. Most bands would kill for a third single this good; Toto treated it as an afterthought. That, more than anything, tells you how high the bar was in that studio in 1982.
Listening observations are original Past Tunes interpretation. Photographs reproduced under the reuse terms shown in their captions.