Toronto (band)

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Toronto was a Canadian rock band from the late seventies and early eighties who have been compared to Heart and Pat Benatar. They were formed in the late 1970s in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, when singer Annie "Holly" Woods met guitarist Brian Allen. The band's constantly shifting line-up was originally augmented by guitarist/backing vocalist Sheron Alton, keyboardist Scott Kreyer, bassist Nick Costello, and drummer Jimmy Fox.

Their first album, Lookin' For Trouble, was released in 1980, and the title track was a Top 40 hit in Canada. Head On (1981) followed , after which Costello and Fox left the band to be replaced by Gary LaLonde (later of Honeymoon Suite) and Barry Connors (later of Coney Hatch).

This sextet recorded Get It On Credit (1982), with "Your Daddy Don't Know" perhaps being their best known hit on the 1982 album. Lalonde was then replaced by Mike Gingrich for 1983's Girls' Night Out in 1983. This album also received attention, as did the band's Greatest Hits album of 1984.

There were subsequently several exits and entrances in 1984/85, with founding members Allen and Alton leaving, along with drummer Connors. They were replaced by Marty Walsh (guitars), Daryl Alvara (guitars) and Paul Hanna (drums), and the band rechristened themselves Holly Woods and Toronto. In 1985, the re-vamped sextet released their final album, Assault And Flattery. It featured the single "New Romance", written by Holly Knight and Anton Fig.

2005 saw Toronto play Voyageur Days Festival in Mattawa, Ontario, Canada (near North Bay) with other Canadian classic rockers Moxy ,Chilliwack , Trooper, Goddo, Killer Dwarfs & Ray Lyell for the 30th anniversary of the release of the debut album by the band Moxy.

1 Toronto's Influence
2 Discography
- 2.1 Albums
- 2.2 Singles
3 External links

[edit] Toronto's Influence

The song "What About Love" was originally recorded by Toronto, having been written by band members Sheron Alton and Brian Allen along with outside collaborator Jim Vallance. The band elected not to release this recording, and the difficulty Allen and Alton faced in getting this and other material onto Toronto's albums eventually led to their departure from the group. In 1985, the song was offered to Heart, who turned "What About Love" into an international top 10 hit. Toronto's version was eventually released in 2002, as a bonus track on various CD resissues of their albums.