Jeff Porcaro

Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was born on April 1, 1954, in Hartford, Connecticut, the eldest son of Los Angeles session percussionist{{cite web|url=https://www.drumclubmagazine.com/read-ms2s9-joe-porcaro-percussionista-made-in-italy.html |title=Joe Porcaro Percussionista Made in Italy |publisher=Il Volo Srl Editore |access-date=2016-11-10}} Joe Porcaro (1930–2020) and his wife, Eileen.{{Cite web |title=Joseph Porcaro Obituary (2020) – Hartford, CT – Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/joseph-porcaro-obituary?id=7894281 |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=Legacy.com}} His younger brother Mike was a successful bassist and was a member of the band Toto. Younger brother Steve is still a studio musician and was also a member of Toto. Porcaro was raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles and attended Ulysses S. Grant High School. Jeff's youngest sibling was sister Joleen, born in 1960.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Porcaro began playing drums at the age of seven. Lessons came from his father Joe Porcaro, followed by further studies with Bob Zimmitti and Richie Lepore. When he was seventeen, he got his first professional gig playing in Sonny & Cher's touring band.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-jeff-porcaro-1540284.html|title=Obituary: Jeff Porcaro|website=The Independent|date=August 14, 1992}} He later called Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon his idols at that time.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ6tzbKsKKk | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211113/dQ6tzbKsKKk| archive-date=2021-11-13 | url-status=live|title=Jeff Porcaro Throwback Thursday from the MI Vault | date=January 29, 2015|publisher=Musicians Institute |access-date=2015-03-13}}{{cbignore}} During his twenties, Porcaro played on hundreds of albums,{{cite web|url=http://www.toto99.com/disco/jeffdisco.shtml |title=Jeff Porcaro's official discography |publisher=Toto99.com |access-date=2010-12-09}} including several for Steely Dan. He toured with Boz Scaggs before co-founding Toto with his brother Steve and childhood friends Steve Lukather and David Paich. Jeff Porcaro is renowned among drummers for the drum pattern he used on the Grammy Award-winning Toto song "Rosanna", from the album Toto IV.{{cite web|author=Nate Brown |url=http://www.onlinedrummer.com/drum-videos/jeff-porcaro-rosanna-shuffle/ |title=Jeff Porcaro – Rosanna Shuffle |publisher=OnlineDrummer.com |access-date=2015-11-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924060454/http://www.onlinedrummer.com/drum-videos/jeff-porcaro-rosanna-shuffle/ |archive-date=September 24, 2015 }} The drum pattern, called the Half-Time Shuffle Groove, was originally created by drummer Bernard Purdie, who called it the "Purdie Shuffle." Porcaro created his own version of this groove by blending the aforementioned shuffle with John Bonham's groove heard in the Led Zeppelin song "Fool in the Rain", while keeping a Bo Diddley beat on the bass drum. Porcaro describes this groove in detail on a Star Licks video (now DVD) he created shortly after "Rosanna" became popular.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNfhaEg8f-s |title=Starlicks Jeff Porcaro Instructional Video For Drumming 1988 |date=2022-03-22 |last=Vhs Vault & Restoring |access-date=2025-01-20 |via=YouTube}}

Besides his work with Toto, he was also a highly sought session musician. Porcaro collaborated with many of the biggest names in music, including Boz Scaggs, Rhythm Heritage,[https://www.superseventies.com/sw_themefromswat.html Theme from SWAT] superseventies.com Retrieved 9 April 2025 Steely Dan, Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, David Foster, George Benson, Donald Fagen, Miles Davis, Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Al Jarreau, Michael Jackson, Sonny & Cher, Tommy Bolin, Eric Carmen, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Andrew Gold, Stan Getz, Herb Alpert, David Gilmour, Elton John, Leo Sayer, Rickie Lee Jones, Paul McCartney, the Bee Gees, Lynn Anderson, Sérgio Mendes, Jim Messina, Seals and Crofts, Barbra Streisand, Richard Marx, Don Henley, Frankie Valli and Joe Walsh. Porcaro contributed drums to four tracks on Michael Jackson's Thriller and also played on the Dangerous album hit "Heal the World". He also played on 10cc's ...Meanwhile (1992). Porcaro featured on Al Stewart's 1980 album 24 Carrots. On the 1993 10cc Alive album, recorded after his death, the band dedicated "The Stars Didn't Show" to him.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Richard Marx dedicated the song "One Man" to him and said Porcaro was the best drummer he had ever worked with.{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.jp/jeffsstamp/diskfile/rfile/rimarx4a.html |title=liner notes "Paid vacation", see quote about "One man" |publisher=Geocities.jp |access-date=2010-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022010407/http://www.geocities.jp/jeffsstamp/diskfile/rfile/rimarx4a.html |archive-date=October 22, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Michael Jackson made a dedication to Porcaro in the liner notes for his 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I.

On October 22, 1983, Porcaro married Susan Norris, a Los Angeles television broadcaster at KABC-TV. Together, they had three sons: Christopher Joseph (1984), Miles Edwin Crawford (1986–2017) and Nico Hendrix (1991).{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Porcaro died at Humana Hospital-West Hills on the evening of August 5, 1992, at the age of 38 after falling ill while spraying insecticide in the yard of his Hidden Hills home. Initially his death was wrongly attributed to a heart attack caused by an allergic reaction to inhaled pesticide. Bandmate Steve Lukather and Porcaro's wife stated they believed that Porcaro had also been suffering from a long-standing heart condition, exacerbated by heavy smoking, which contributed to his death. Lukather noted that several members of Porcaro's family had died at a young age due to heart disease. However, the LA county coroner ruled out an accident and determined a heart attack due to occlusive coronary artery disease caused by atherosclerosis resulting from cocaine use.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-04-me-6355-story.html|title=Drummer's Death Linked to Cocaine, Coroner Says: Autopsy: Report finds no evidence to support earlier belief that Toto's Jeff Porcaro died of an allergic reaction to a pesticide| first= Julie| last= Tamaki| website= Los Angeles Times| date= September 4, 1992| access-date= }}{{cite web |url= http://www.toto99.com/band/history/history4.shtml |title= Band History |publisher= Toto| website= toto99.com |date= August 5, 1992 |access-date=2011-10-24}}{{cite web|url=https://www.grunge.com/163261/the-tragic-real-life-story-of-toto/ |title=The tragic real life story of Toto | website= grunge.com| publisher= |date=August 22, 2019 }}

Porcaro's tombstone was inscribed with the following epitaph, comprising lyrics from the Kingdom of Desire track "Wings of Time": "Our love doesn't end here; it lives forever on the Wings of Time."

The Jeff Porcaro Memorial Fund was established to benefit the music and art departments of Grant High School in Los Angeles, where he was a student in the early 1970s. A memorial concert took place at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992, with an all-star line-up that included George Harrison, Boz Scaggs, Donald Fagen, Don Henley, Michael McDonald, David Crosby, Eddie Van Halen and the members of Toto. The proceeds of the concert were used to establish an education trust fund for Porcaro's sons.

{{div col}}

• Toto (1978)
• Hydra (1979)
• Turn Back (1981)
• Toto IV (1982)
• Isolation (1984)
• Dune [original soundtrack] (1984)
• "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW4HnVtRMuY Olympic Games 1984 Theme]" [original soundtrack] (1984)
• Fahrenheit (1986)
• The Seventh One (1988)
• Past to Present 1977 - 1990 (1990)
• Kingdom of Desire (1992, released posthumously and dedicated to his memory)
• Toto XX (1998)
• Greatest Hits Live...and More (DVD with behind the scenes footage and interviews)
• Old Is New (2018, posthumous appearance)

• Seals & Crofts – Diamond Girl (1973); Unborn Child (1974); Get Closer (1976)
• Joe Cocker – I Can Stand a Little Rain (1974); Civilized Man (1984)
• Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (1974) – "Night by Night", "Parker's Band"; Katy Lied (1975); "FM (No Static at All)" (1978, for the FM movie soundtrack album); Gaucho (1980) – "Gaucho"
• Andrew Gold (1978) – Thank You For Being a Friend
• Tommy Bolin – Teaser (1975) – "The Grind", "Homeward Strut", "Dreamer", "Teaser"
• Rhythm Heritage – Disco-fied (1976)
• Les Dudek – Les Dudek (1976)
• Three Dog Night – American Pastime (1976)
• Jackson Browne – The Pretender (1976)
• Leo Sayer – Endless Flight (1976) – "When I Need You"; Thunder in My Heart (1977); Leo Sayer (1978); World Radio (1982); Have You Ever Been in Love (1983)
• Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees (1976); Down Two Then Left (1977); Middle Man (1980); "Look What You've Done to Me" (1980, featured in the movie Urban Cowboy); "Miss Sun" (1980, released as a single, then included on the compilation Hits!); Other Roads (1988)
• Eric Carmen – Boats Against the Current (1977) – "She Did It", "Boats Against the Current", "Love Is All That Matters"
• Valerie Carter – Just a Stone's Throw Away (1977); Wild Child (1978)
• Lisa Dal Bello – Lisa Dal Bello (1977)
• Alan O'Day – Undercover Angel (1977)
• Hall & Oates – Beauty on a Back Street (1977)
• Lee Ritenour – Captain Fingers (1977); Rit (1981)
• Diana Ross – Baby It's Me (1977); Ross (1983)
• Colin Blunstone – Never Even Thought (1978)
• Larry Carlton – Larry Carlton (1978); Sleepwalk (1981); Friends (1983)
• Allen Toussaint – Motion (1978)
• As Frenéticas – Dancin' Days (1978)
• Dave Mason – Mariposa De Oro (1978) – "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"
• The Manhattan Transfer – Pastiche (1978); Extensions (1979) – "Birdland", "Twilight Zone / Twilight Tone"; Bodies and Souls (1983); The Offbeat of Avenues (1991) – "Confide in Me"
• Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy (1978) – "Nighttime in the Switching Yard"; Mr. Bad Example (1991)
• Ruben Blades – Nothing but the Truth (1988)
• Bim – Thistles (1978)
• Jerry Williams – Gone (1978)
• Al Stewart – Time Passages (1978) – "Valentina Way"
• Marc Jordan – Mannequin (1978)
• The Pointer Sisters – Energy (1978)
• Linda Evans – "You Control Me" (1979)
• Rickie Lee Jones – Rickie Lee Jones (1979); The Magazine (1984)
• Janne Schaffer – Earmeal (1979)
• Lowell George – Thanks, I'll Eat It Here (1979)
• Bill Hughes – Dream Master (1979)
• Pink Floyd – The Wall (1979) – "Mother"
• Aretha Franklin – Aretha (1980); Love All the Hurt Away (1981)
• Klaatu – Endangered Species (1980)
• Mariya Takeuchi – Miss M (1980)
• The Brothers Johnson – Winners (1981)
• Bill Champlin – Runaway (1981)
• Peter Frampton – Breaking All the Rules (1981)
• Bee Gees – Living Eyes (1981)
• Char – U.S.J (1981)
• Christopher Cross – "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" (1981); Another Page (1983); Rendezvous (1992)
• Randy Crawford – Secret Combination (1981); Windsong (1982); Nightline (1983)
• Al Jarreau – Breakin' Away (1981) – "Breakin' Away"; Girls Know How (1982, soundtrack for movie Night Shift); Jarreau (1983) – "Mornin'", "Step by Step", "Black and Blues"
• Amii Ozaki – Hot Baby (1981)
• Greg Lake – Greg Lake (1981)
• Sarah Vaughan – Songs of the Beatles (1981)
• Crosby, Stills & Nash – Daylight Again (1982); Allies (1983)
• Eye to Eye – Eye to Eye (1982)
• Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982) – "The Girl is Mine", "Beat It", "Human Nature", "The Lady in My Life"; Dangerous (1991) – "Heal the World"
• Donna Summer – Donna Summer (1982) – "Protection"
• Elton John – Jump Up! (1982)
• Melissa Manchester – Hey Ricky (1982) – "You Should Hear How She Talks About You"
• Donald Fagen – The Nightfly (1982)
• Bill LaBounty – Bill LaBounty (1982)
• Herbie Hancock – Lite Me Up (1982)
• Don Henley – I Can't Stand Still (1982) – "Dirty Laundry"; The End of the Innocence (1989) – "New York Minute"
• Michael McDonald – If That's What It Takes (1982) – "I Keep Forgettin'"; No Lookin' Back (1985); Take It to Heart (1990)
• The Imperials – Stand By The Power (1982)
• George Benson – In Your Eyes (1983) – "Lady Love Me (One More Time)"
• James Newton Howard – James Newton Howard and Friends (1983){{cite web|url=http://sheffieldlab.com/item.php?item_id=40 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109131921/http://sheffieldlab.com/item.php?item_id=40 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |title=James Newton Howard & Friends |website=Sheffieldlab.com |access-date=2016-06-27}}
• Lionel Richie – Can't Slow Down (1983) – "Running with the Night"; Louder Than Words (1996) – "The Climbing"
• Paul Simon – Hearts and Bones (1983) – "Train in the Distance"
• Randy Newman – Trouble in Paradise (1983) – "I Love L.A."
• Russ Taff – Walls of Glass (1983) – "Walls of Glass", "Jeremiah", "Inside Look"; Russ Taft (1987) – "I Still Believe"
• Chicago – Chicago 17 (1984) – "Stay the Night"
• David Gilmour – About Face (1984)
• The Jacksons – Victory (1984) – "Torture", "Wait"; 2300 Jackson Street (1989) – "Midnight Rendezvous"
• Paul McCartney – Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) – "Silly Love Songs"
• Joe Walsh – The Confessor (1985)
• Eric Clapton – Behind the Sun (1985) – "See What Love Can Do", "Forever Man"
• Peter Cetera – Solitude/Solitaire (1986)
• Earth, Wind & Fire – Touch the World (1987) – You and I, Every Now and Then
• Fra Lippo Lippi – Light and Shade (1987)
• Roger Hodgson – Hai Hai (1987)
• David Benoit – Freedom at Midnight (1987); Shadows (1991)
• Jon Anderson – In the City of Angels (1988)
• Luis Miguel – Busca Una Mujer (1988)
• Love and Money – Strange Kind of Love (1988)
• Patti Austin – The Real Me (1988); Love Is Gonna Getcha (1990)
• Dr. John – In a Sentimental Mood (1989)
• Nik Kershaw – The Works (1989) – "Walkabout"
• Poco – Legacy (1989)
• Clair Marlo – Let It Go (1989)
• Celine Dion – Have a Heart (1989)
• Natalie Cole – Good to Be Back (1989) – The Rest Of The Night, "Miss You Like Crazy", Gonna Make You Mine, "Starting Over Again"
• Benny Hester – Perfect (1989)
• Madonna – Like a Prayer (1989) – "Cherish"; I'm Breathless (1990) – "Hanky Panky"
• Jude Cole – A View from 3rd Street (1990) – "Time for Letting Go", "Compared to Nothing"; Start the Car (1992) – "Open Road", "Tell The Truth"
• Sandi Patty – "Another Time...Another Place" (1990)
• Bruce Springsteen – "Viva Las Vegas" (1990, included in the collective album The Last Temptation of Elvis and featured in the movie Honeymoon in Vegas); Human Touch (1992)
• Bryan Duncan – Anonymous Confessions of a Lunatic Friend (1990)
• Emily Remler – This Is Me (1990)
• Cher – Mermaids (1990) – "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)"; Love Hurts (1991) – "Could've Been You"
• Michael Bolton – Time, Love & Tenderness (1991) – "When a Man Loves a Woman"
• Dire Straits – On Every Street (1991) – (Except "Heavy Fuel" & "Planet of New Orleans")
• Richard Marx – Rush Street (1991); Paid Vacation (1994) – "One Man"
• Bonnie Raitt – Luck of the Draw (1991)
• Rod Stewart – Vagabond Heart (1991) – "The Motown Song"
• Curtis Stigers – Curtis Stigers (1991)
• Ricky Gianco – E' rock & roll (1991)
• Paul Brady – Trick or Treat (1991)
• B-52s – Good Stuff (1992)
• Go West – Indian Summer (1992)
• 10cc – ...Meanwhile (1992); Woman In Love (1992); Welcome To Paradise (1992)
• Sergio Mendes – Brasileiro (1992)
• Bruce Springsteen – Human Touch (1992) – "Human Touch"
• Roger Waters – Amused to Death (1992) – "It's a Miracle"
• Paul Young – The Crossing (1993)
• David Crosby – Thousand Roads (1993)
• Patti Scialfa – Rumble Doll (1993) – "Come Tomorrow", "Talk to Me Like the Rain"
• Steve Porcaro – Someday/Somehow (2016) – "Back to You"

{{div col end}}

• {{cite book|first=Robyn|last=Flans|title=It's about Time: Jeff Porcaro, the Man and His Music|publisher=Hudson Music|year=2020|isbn=978-1-705-11229-8}} Foreword by Jim Keltner.
• {{cite book|first=Robyn|last=Flans|title=Moments in Time: Jeff Porcaro Stories|publisher=Hudson Music|year=2024|isbn=979-8-350-11455-3}}

• {{cite journal|first1=E|last1=Räsänen|first2=O|last2=Pulkkinen|first3=T|last3=Virtanen|first4=M|last4=Zollner|first5=H|last5=Hennig|date=June 3, 2015 |title=Fluctuations of Hi-Hat Timing and Dynamics in a Virtuoso Drum Track of a Popular Music Recording |journal=PLOS One |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=e0127902 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0127902|doi-access=free |pmid=26039256 |pmc=4454559 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1027902R }}

• Rosanna shuffle, a drum pattern

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://jeffporcaro.blogspot.com Tribute site with complete discography of sessions.]
• [http://www.toto99.com/jeff/tribute.shtml Official Toto website section dedicated to Porcaro]
• [http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Jeff_Porcaro.html Porcaro page at Drummerworld]
• [http://idhitthatpodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2013-09-01T06_57_30-07_00 2013 Audio Interview with Steve Lukather talking about Jeff Porcaro from the I'd Hit That podcast] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422145902/http://idhitthatpodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2013-09-01T06_57_30-07_00 |date=April 22, 2016 }}
• [http://jeffporcaro.net Jeffporcaro.net]
• {{discogs artist|Jeff Porcaro}}
• {{imdb name|0691663}}

{{Toto}}

{{Steely Dan}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porcaro, Jeff}}

Category:1954 births

Category:1992 deaths

Category:Musicians from Hartford, Connecticut

Category:People from South Windsor, Connecticut

Category:Grammy Award winners

Category:American rock drummers

Category:American session musicians

Category:American people of Italian descent

Category:Toto (band) members

Category:Clover (band) members

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Category:20th-century American drummers

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:American male drummers

Category:Deaths from atherosclerosis

Category:Grant High School (Los Angeles) alumni

Category:Steely Dan members

Category:Drummers from Connecticut

Category:Porcaro family