Peak
2
Weeks
23
Score
4,958
Chart Year
1982
The West Side Story-inspired video was directed by Steve Barron and set in a stylized urban streetscape, with Rosanna represented by a dancer whose bright red dress contrasts with the gray surroundings. The band plays within a chain-link fence enclosure. Cynthia Rhodes is featured as the lead dancer Rosanna, which led to her being cast in Staying Alive the following year.[14] Patrick Swayze was also uncredited as a dancer in the music video and he and Rhodes would both star in the movie Dirty Dancing.[15] Despite not playing on the actual recording, new bassist Mike Porcaro (brother of Jeff and Steve) appears in the video, as original Toto bass player David Hungate left before the video was made. Lenny Castro is also featured with the band as a percussionist
This song got its name from the actress Rosanna Arquette, who was dating Toto keyboard player Steve Porcaro at the time. Porcaro didn't write the song - it was written by Toto leader David Paich, who was always looking for good ideas for lyrics. In a Songfacts interview with Paich, he explained: "'Rosanna' was about a high school love, one of my first loves, but I just tagged another Rosanna's name on there because she was going at the time with Steve Porcaro, my best friend. He had just met her and was looking to title a song with her name, and it just fit perfectly for that song right there. So it's got her name on it, but it's really about another high school sweetheart, which is how songs happen sometimes." Steve Porcaro and Rosanna Arquette broke up not long after this song was released. It would not be the last time Arquette dated a musician: she had a turbulent relationship with Peter Gabriel in the early '90s, and in 2007, she went on some dates with Paul McCartney. This song caused some justifiable confusion, as it was written by David Paich, inspired by Steve Porcaro's girlfriend, yet sung by lead singer Bobby Kimball. Many listeners assumed it was Kimball who was involved with Arquette. From the opening line, it seems like this is going to be a love song to Rosanna: All I want to do when I wake up in the morning is see you eyes But a few lines in we learn that she's a heartbreaker: I didn't know you were looking for more than I could ever be By the end of the song, we learn that she's been gone for nearly a year, and this poor guy is still a wreck: I never thought that losing you could ever hurt so bad The catchy chorus and optimistic opening line belie the heartache in the song, making it maybe not the best choice for Steve Porcaro to impress Rosanna Arquette, although the song ended up being more popular than most of her movies. The girl who played Rosanna in the video will look familiar to fans of the movie Dirty Dancing: It's Cynthia Rhodes, who played Penny Johnson in the movie. Patrick Swayze is also in the video, but much less visible - that's him wearing the red jacket among Rosanna's suitors. The West Side Story-style dance fighting was used in the clip almost a year before Michael Jackson did it in his video for "Beat It." Even more trivia: Rhodes was married to Richard Marx from 1989-2014. David Paich had the initial idea for the video. When the song breaks down for the line, "Not quite a year since she went away," there is finger-snapping in the mix, which is a hallmark of West Side Story. Paich thought about doing something similar to what Phil Collins did in his "You Can't Hurry Love" video, where guys do some shadow dancing while snapping their fingers. His simple idea became far more elaborate after director Steve Barron started working on it. "We got down to the lot, and all of a sudden, there's like, ten pairs of guys dressed in leather jackets like Grease, jumping around and dancing," Paich told Songfacts. This won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year and helped Toto IV win for Album of the Year. The band also won Producer of the Year for their work on the album, which they produced themselves. Toto's first seven albums each contain at least one song with a girl's name in the title. Most of these songs were written by David Paich, who did so as a sort of tribute to his father, Marty Paich, who arranged the Ray Charles album Dedicated to You, in which every song had a girl's name in the title. Here are the wom
All I wanna do when I wake up in the morning is see your eyes Rosanna, Rosanna Never thought that a girl like you could ever care for me, Rosanna All I wanna do in the middle of the evening is hold you tight Rosanna, Rosanna I didn't know you were looking for more than I could ever be Not quite a year since she went away, Rosanna, yeah Now she's gone and I have to say Meet you all the way, meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah Meet you all the way, meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah I can see your face still shining through the window on the other side Rosanna, Rosanna I didn't know that a girl like you could make me feel so sad, Rosanna All I wanna tell you is now you'll never ever have to compromise Rosanna, Rosanna I never thought that losing you could ever hurt so bad Not quite a year since she went away, Rosanna, yeah Now she's gone and I have to say Meet you all the way, meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah Meet you all the way, meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah Not quite a year since she went away, Rosanna, yeah Now she's gone and I have to say Meet you all the way (yeah-yeah), meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah Meet you all the way (ooh-ooh, yeah), meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah Meet you all the way, meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah Meet you all the way, meet you all the way, Rosanna, yeah
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apr 17, 1982 | 81 | 45 |
| 2 | Apr 24, 1982 | 72 | 54 |
| 3 | May 1, 1982 | 59 | 67 |
| 4 | May 8, 1982 | 38 | 88 |
| 5 | May 15, 1982 | 27 | 99 |
| 6 | May 22, 1982 | 20 | 106 |
| 7 | May 29, 1982 | 16 | 110 |
| 8 | Jun 5, 1982 | 10 | 116 |
| 9 | Jun 12, 1982 | 7 | 119 |
| 10 | Jun 19, 1982 | 3 | 123 |
| 11 | Jun 26, 1982 | 3 | 123 |
| 12 | Jul 3, 1982 | 2 | 124 |
| 13 | Jul 10, 1982 | 2 | 124 |
| 14 | Jul 17, 1982 | 2 | 124 |
| 15 | Jul 24, 1982 | 2 | 124 |
| 16 | Jul 31, 1982 | 2 | 124 |
| 17 | Aug 7, 1982 | 6 | 120 |
| 18 | Aug 14, 1982 | 8 | 118 |
| 19 | Aug 21, 1982 | 15 | 111 |
| 20 | Aug 28, 1982 | 20 | 106 |