Keyboardist David Paich said that the song was relatively easy to develop. He began with the piano riff, which would become the song's intro and chorus. After toying with the piano riff one night, he started singing "Hold the line, love isn't always on time", and found the lyric to be a suitable fit. The verses were subsequently finished two hours later. Jeff Porcaro discussed "Hold the Line" in a 1988 interview with
Modern Drummer: "That was me trying to play like
Sly Stone's original drummer,
Greg Errico, who played drums on "Hot Fun In The Summertime." The hi-hat is doing triplets, the snare drum is playing 2 and 4 backbeats, and the bass drum is on 1 and the & of 2. That 8th note on the second beat is an 8th-note triplet feel, pushed. When we did the tune, I said, "Gee, this is going to be a heavy four-on-the-floor rocker, but we want a Sly groove." The triplet groove of the tune was David's writing. It was taking the Sly groove and meshing it with a harder rock caveman approach." The song is in the key of F# minor and features a guitar solo after the second chorus played by guitarist
Steve Lukather. The guitar solo was played in one take with the exception of the ending. Lukather had expressed dissatisfaction with the last part of the solo and thus worked with Paich to develop ideas for the final guitar
lick. Paich wanted the final section of the solo to feature extensive harmonies, so Lukather multitracked his part to achieve this. Lukather recalled his reaction to hearing "Hold the Line" on the radio. == Critical reception ==