On this day · 78 years ago · 1948
78 Years Ago Today: Toto Founding Bassist David Hungate Is Born
David Hungate spent the 1970s as a first-call Los Angeles session bassist before co-founding Toto, then left the band right after its Grammy-sweeping Toto IV to raise a family in Nashville.
By Lowe, Bass desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Bassist David Hungate was born August 5, 1948, in Troy, Missouri, and turns 78 today. A first-call Los Angeles session player through the 1970s, he backed Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees and Alice Cooper's From the Inside before co-founding Toto in 1976 with his session colleagues. Hungate played bass on the band's first four albums, including 1982's Grammy-winning Toto IV, then left for a second career as a Nashville session musician, later playing on all of Shania Twain's The Woman in Me.
From trombone lessons in Troy, Missouri, to Sonny & Cher's road band
William David Hungate was born August 5, 1948, in Troy, Missouri, the son of a lawyer, William L. Hungate, who later became a U.S. Congressman and federal judge, per Wikipedia's account of his career. He started on trombone as a boy, studying with the St. Louis Symphony's principal trombonist, before picking up guitar and saxophone. Bass came almost by accident: in early 1968, per his own account to For Bass Players Only, a college friend needed a bass player for a big-band gig and Hungate borrowed an instrument to fill in. "I was recognized as a bass player and was working a lot more on that instrument than on trombone," he said. "It's been that way ever since."
He studied in the jazz program at North Texas State University, playing the 1970 Montreux Jazz Festival with the school's One O'Clock Lab Band. In 1971, a gig with Woody Herman's touring band was quickly outbid by an offer from Sonny & Cher, who paid better and flew instead of riding a bus. Hungate joined their TV show's house band as a guitarist, then moved to bass after their bassist left.
Silk Degrees, then a Grammy-sweeping Toto IV
That gig put Hungate in the room with two future Toto bandmates. In early 1972, he met drummer Jeff Porcaro on a session and recommended him to Sonny & Cher; keyboardist David Paich joined soon after. The three became the rhythm section on Boz Scaggs's 1976 album Silk Degrees, the record Hungate credits with putting them on the map. Record labels came calling soon after, and Toto formed later that year. Hungate is credited as the one who came up with the band's name.
He played bass on Toto's first four albums, including 1982's Grammy-winning Toto IV, the record that carries the band's best-known tracks, "Rosanna" and "Africa." He left the band shortly after its release. "I had two young kids and didn't want to be on the road," he told For Bass Players Only in 2015. "I was beginning to get established in Nashville. It was the right thing to do at the time. Still a very hard decision."
A second act in Nashville, then back with Toto
In Nashville, Hungate built a long session career, arranging and recording with Chet Atkins and, in 1995, playing bass on every track of Shania Twain's breakthrough album The Woman in Me. He rejoined Toto for touring duty in 2014 after touring bassist Nathan East departed, filling in for an ailing Mike Porcaro, and played on four tracks of the band's 2015 album Toto XIV before stepping back from extensive touring again. Among his own influences, Hungate has named James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Jack Bruce, and Chuck Rainey.
What David Hungate actually plays
Unlike a lot of players from his session generation, Hungate's string choice is directly on the record. Asked about his gear in that same 2015 interview, he said plainly: "I use and endorse D'addario strings."
EXL160 XL Nickel Wound Bass Medium (.050-.105)
Why this one: Hungate names D'Addario directly as his brand. This medium-gauge nickel roundwound is D'Addario's standard heavier 4-string set, not a claim about the exact gauge he plays.
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