L.A.'S TOTO HAS PAID ITS DUES ALL AROUND THE WORLD.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

As any fan of ``The Wizard of Oz'' can attest, it's the yapping little dog, Toto, that reveals the secret of the Wizard.

The band of the same name also revealed something during the new-wave-obsessed music scene of the '80s -- just how polarizing a rock group could be.

Toto sold many millions of albums fueled by the hits ``Hold the Line,'' ``Africa'' and ``Rosanna,'' accompanied by constant rotation on the then-new MTV network.

Rock critics, who preferred Elvis Costello, the Clash and Talking Heads, detested Toto's glossy, polished sound. Record buyers and radio programmers felt differently.

``The critics hated us because we weren't trendy, even in our heyday,'' muses Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, who has sessioned for everyone from Herb Alpert to Joni Mitchell to Warren Zevon. ``If you were never hip, you can never be unhip.''

Today, after almost 30 years together, more than a dozen albums and several lineup changes, Toto -- whose original membership met at Grant High School in North Hollywood -- remains a strong draw around the world.

Saturday, Toto returns to a local stage, appearing at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

``People still come out and see us,'' the singer and guitarist said. ``It may not be the hip place to be seen, but I love that fact. People either like us or they don't. At this point, I don't really care. They pay me to play the guitar. I have a couple of kids and a hot wife and I make a bunch of money.''

Lukather, 48, says the band has become a kind of underground phenomenon.

``At this point, we don't even play the U.S. that much. It's weird: We're an L.A. band and we have an audience that really crosses generations, but there's still this lingering resentment. Maybe it's because we're all seasoned musicians and most people prefer the cookie-cutter junk they hear on the radio.''

As Lukather remembers it, when the group's self-titled 1979 debut sold 2 million copies seemingly overnight, the perception grew among the self-appointed experts that Toto was a record-biz creation that didn't pay its dues on the club circuit. The truth was that the members' reputations had actually been built in a far tougher arena -- the recording studios of Hollywood.

``Europeans always had a different viewpoint of us,'' Lukather said. ``We go over there and play gigs with (British heavy-metal band) Moterhead. In Europe, people dig all kinds of music. They don't get caught up in labeling everything.''

Lukather, whose Toto schedule includes a string of large- scale dates next month in Mexico, says being in the world's most popular unpopular band has its unseen benefits.

``I have it all,'' he says. ``I can walk down the street as a complete unknown and nobody bothers me.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

TOTO

Where: Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $29.50 to $39.50. [phone]; ticketmaster.com.

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Photo:

Toto -- originally an L.A. band that has been together for nearly 30 years -- plays the Wiltern on Saturday night. ``The critics hated us because we weren't trendy, even in our heyday,'' says singer-guitarist Steve Lukather, third from left.