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Joseph Williams (born September 1, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and film score composer, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Toto from 1986 to 1988 and again since 2010. Outside of Toto, he has worked as a composer and studio vocalist, including providing the singing voice of Simba in the 1994 animated film The Lion King.
Williams was born Joseph Stanley Williams on September 1, 1960, in Santa Monica, California, the son of actress Barbara Ruick and prolific film composer John Williams.[1] He was the youngest of three children with an older brother and an older sister.[2]
Williams was the lead vocalist for Toto during the mid- to late 1980s and was featured on the albums Fahrenheit (1986) and The Seventh One (1988) before leaving due to personal problems. He can also be heard on the album Toto XX (1998), a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks. He is featured on Toto's 2006 album, Falling in Between, sharing lead vocals with Steve Lukather on "Bottom of Your Soul". In addition to his guest spot on Falling in Between, Williams was a guest singer at several Toto concerts.
Williams rejoined Toto upon its reformation in 2010 and performed on the band's recent live albums and the 2015 studio album Toto XIV. When the group disbanded in 2019 and subsequently reformed in 2020, Williams was the only member from the previous lineup besides Lukather and touring members Warren Ham and Dominique "Xavier" Taplin to return.
Williams released his first, self-titled solo album in 1982. After his initial tenure with Toto, he has released several more. Many of Toto's members have contributed to his solo work over the years. In 2003, he released an album called Vertigo, a project he initiated, but where he was not in full charge of the production, only recording and supplying the vocals.[3] The second Vertigo album, Vertigo 2, was released in 2006. Williams released an album of cover songs from artists such as Elton John, Bryan Adams, Diane Warren, and Kevin Cronin in 2006 called Two of Us, featuring piano and voice only. He returned with two more voice and piano albums in 2007, Smiles and Tears, also consisting of classic hits by popular artists. His latest solo album containing original songs, This Fall, was released in November 2008.
Joseph Williams has also been busy as a composer of film and drama scores, most notably for episodes of the science fiction series Roswell, and The Lyon's Den starring Rob Lowe.
He was the writer of the original English lyrics for the songs "Lapti Nek" and "Ewok Celebration" from the original 1983 release of Return of the Jedi, which was scored and conducted by his father, John Williams.[4] Both songs were replaced with new compositions in the 1997 Special Edition.[5] He collaborated again with his father on the releases of 1999's The Phantom Menace and the 2002's Attack of the Clones. In the former he helped compose Augie's Great Municipal Band which appears during the ending of the film and in the latter 2M4, an untitled composition that appears during the Dex's Diner sequence.
In 2003, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Main Title Theme Music" for the TV series Miracles.[3] The music to the CBS miniseries Category 7: The End of the World[6] and the TV film Momentum[7] were composed by him.
Williams has been in demand as a session vocalist and can be heard on numerous projects by other artists, as well as on movie soundtracks. In 1985 he sang the vocals for the theme song of the animated TV series Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears.[8] He provided backing vocals on Peter Cetera's album World Falling Down and co-wrote the song "Man in Me", lead vocals for three tracks – "Walk the Wire", "History" and "When You Look in My Eyes" – to Jay Graydon's Airplay for the Planet album, subsequently touring with the band and backing vocals on Jon Anderson's In the City of Angels in 1988, most prominently on the song "Top of the World (The Glass Bead Game)". In Disney's animated feature film The Lion King, he can be heard as the singing voice of the Adult Simba, singing on the songs "Hakuna Matata" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". He reprised this singing role in the direct-to-video animated film Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. In 1997 and 1998 respectively, he shared vocal duties on two albums by the a cappella covers group The West Coast All Stars, the other vocalists being Bobby Kimball, Bill Champlin and Jason Scheff, whereas Tommy Funderburk replaced Champlin on the Naturally album. He sings background vocals on Chicago's "King of Might Have Been" on the 2006 album Chicago XXX as well as on "Let's Take a Lifetime" on the 1993-recorded/2008-released album Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus. The song "What You're Missing" from the Chicago album Chicago 16 was co-written by him.[9] He also sings backing vocals on five tracks from Steve Lukather's solo album Ever Changing Times in addition to lending his vocals to another three of Lukather's solo albums, All's Well That Ends Well, I Found the Sun Again and Bridges.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | The Lion King | Adult Simba (singing voice) | Voice |
| 2001 | Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse | Adult Simba | Voice; direct-to-video |
| 2002 | Disney Sing-Along Songs: Very Merry Christmas | Archive footage |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000-2002 | Roswell | Choir Member #1 | 1 episode |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Lion King II: Simba's Pride: Active Play | Adult Simba (singing voice) | Voice |
| 2010 | Disney Sing It: Family Hits | Archive footage |
The following list consists of select films for which Joseph Williams composed the score and/or songs.
| Year | Title | Director | Studio(s) | Notes / Accolades |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | The Waiter | Doug Ellin | Vance/Fellow Productions | First film score |
| 1995 | Embrace of the Vampire | Anne Goursaud | The Ministry of Film General Media Entertainment New Line Cinema |
Known As Joseph Stanley Williams |
| Last Gasp | Scott McGinnis | The Kushner-Locke Company WarnerVision Films Castel Film Romania |
— | |
| 1996 | Poison Ivy II: Lily | Anne Goursand | New Line Cinema Cintel Pictures MG Entertainment |
— |
| Phat Beach | Doug Ellin | Connection III Entertainment Live Entertainment Orion Pictures |
— | |
| The Legend of Gator Face | Vic Sarin | Showtime Networks The Ministry of Film |
— | |
| Shoot the Moon | Tom Hodges | Sugardaddy Productions | Known as Joseph Stanley Williams | |
| Snitch | Keith Markinson | Cinestage Productions | — | |
| 1997 | Below Utopia | Kurt Voss | Cintel Films Subtopian Films Inc. |
— |
| Johnny Mysto: Boy Wizard | Jeff Burr | Castel Film Romania Full Moon Entertainment The Kushner-Locke Company |
— | |
| 1998 | Butter | Peter Gathings Bunche | Butter Films Inc. Cintel Pictures World International Network |
— |
| 1999 | From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money | Scott Spiegel | Los Hooligans Productions A Band Apart Dimension Films |
Known as Joseph Stanley Williams |
| Judgment Day | John Terlesky | Cintel Films Judgment Cinema Inc. |
— |
| Year | Title | Director | Studio(s) | Notes / Accolades |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Chain of Command | John Terlesky | Cinetel Films Chain of Command Inc. |
Known as Joseph Stanley Williams |
| 2001 | Last Request | Tom Hodges | Kismet Productions | Known as Joseph Stanley Williams |
| Guardian | John Terlesky | Cintel Films | Known as Joseph Stanley Williams | |
| 2002 | Another Life | Tracey D'Arcy | Another Life Productions | Known as Joseph Stanley Williams |
| Malevolent | John Terlesky | Burg/Koules Productions Cintel Films |
Known as Joseph Stanley Williams | |
| 2003 | Written in Blood | Cintel Films | — | |
| 2004 | Soccer Dog: European Cup | Sandy Tung | John Brister Productions | Known as Joseph Stanley Williams Composed with Steve Porcaro |
| 2005 | The Golden Blaze | Bryon E. Carson | 120dB Films Aurum Digital Entertainment DH Institute of Media Arts |
Known as Joseph Stanley Williams |
| 2006 | No I in Security | Eric A. Lee | Foursquare and 7 Productions | — |
| 2007 | Real Estate Super Man | — |
Williams married his wife Amye Troyer in 1982.[11] Together they have three daughters named Sarah, Hannah, and Emma.[12][13][14]
