When Toto was in the middle of recording the album that would later be named "Tambu," Steve Lukather asked listeners of the Dutch radio show "Countdown Cafe" for suggestions on a title. Toto themselves had some ideas too: "The Donkey's Knob", "Old Enough to Count, Old Enough to Mount" and
=> "Dave's Gone Skiing". The latter was used as the title for the instrumental piece on "Tambu", sometimes called "Jake to the Bone II" by fans.
The word Tambu is the name for an ancient South-American dance, which is pictured on the sleeve of the album.
While Toto was in the studio going over possible albm titles, David Paich came across the word in a book of 1940s style art. He fell in love with it, and all the other titles were abandoned.
The sleeve (designed by
=> Dan Brereton) shows an American pulp novel from the fifties with the title "Tambu: they ignited the passion of a lost generation".
Related Pages
Steve Lukather
Tambu
