Toots and the Maytals, originally called The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music. Frontman Toots Hibbert’s soulful vocal style has been compared to Otis Redding, and led him to be named one of the 100 Greatest Singers by Rolling Stone. Their 1968 single “Do the Reggay”, was the first song to first use the word “reggae”, naming the genre and introducing it to a global audience. As Island Records founder Chris Blackwell says, “The Maytals were unlike anything else … sensational, raw and dynamic.”
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, the frontman of the group, was born in May Pen, Clarendon, Jamaica, in 1942, the youngest of seven children. He grew up singing gospel music in a church choir and moved to Kingston in the late 1950’s.
Hibbert met Henry “Raleigh” Gordon and Nathaniel “Jerry” Mathias in Kingston in 1962 and formed The Maytals as a vocal trio, a group whose early recordings were incorrectly attributed to The Flames and The Vikings in the UK by Island Records. The first instrumentalist members added to the group included Jackie Jackson, Hux Brown, Rad Bryan and Paul Douglas. In 1972, the group changed its name from The Maytals to Toots and the Maytals, with “Toots” referring to frontman Toots Hibbert, and “the Maytals” referring to the group’s instrumentalists and background vocalists. In November 2016, Jackie Jackson described the formation of the group in a radio interview for Kool 97 FM Jamaica. Accompanied by Paul Douglas and Radcliffe “Dougie” Bryan in studio, Jackson explained,
We’re all original members of Toots and the Maytals band. First it was Toots and the Maytals, three guys: Toots, Raleigh, and Jerry. … And then they were signed to Island Records, Chris Blackwell. And we were their recording band. One day we were summoned to Chris’ house. And he says, “Alright gentleman, I think it’s time. This Toots and the Maytals looks like it’s going to be a big thing”. By this time he had already signed Bob (Marley). So in his camp, Island Records, there was Toots and the Maytals / Bob Marley; we were talking about reggae is going international now. We kept on meeting and he (Blackwell) decided that the backing band that back all of the songs, the recording band, should be the Maytals band. So everything came under Toots and the Maytals. So we became Maytals also. And then we hit the road in 1975 … we were the opening act for the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and Jackson Browne. We were the opening act for The Who for about two weeks.
The Maytals first had chart success recording for producer Clement “Coxsone” Dodd at Studio One. With musical backing from Dodd’s house band, the Skatalites, the Maytals’ close-harmony gospel singing ensured success, overshadowing Dodd’s other up-and-coming vocal group, the Wailers. After staying at Studio One for about two years, the group moved on to do sessions for Prince Buster before recording with Byron Lee in 1966. With Lee, the Maytals won the first-ever Jamaican Independence Festival Popular Song Competition with their original song “Bam Bam” (later covered in a Dancehall style by Sister Nancy, and also by Yellowman in 1982). The group’s musical career was interrupted in late 1966 when Hibbert was jailed for 18 months for possession of marijuana. He stated that he was not arrested for ganja, but while bailing a friend. Hibbert reportedly wrote “54-46 That’s My Number” about his time in jail.
Following Hibbert’s release in 1967, the Maytals began working with the Chinese Jamaican producer Leslie Kong, a collaboration which yielded a string of hits throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. These included “Do the Reggay”, released in 1968, which was the first song to first use the word “reggae” and gave the developing genre its name.
The Maytals are responsible for some of the biggest hits in reggae history, including “Pressure Drop,” “Sweet And Dandy” and “54-46 (That’s My Number)”, the winner of the 1969 Jamaican Independence Festival Popular Song Competition
In 1970 “Monkey Man” became the group’s first international hit. By 1971, they signed a recording contract with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, become the biggest act on the island, and had become international stars.[9]
In 1972 the group won the Jamaican Independence Festival Popular Song Competition for a third time with “Pomps and Pride”. The group was also featured twice in the soundtrack to The Harder They Come, the 1972 film starring Jimmy Cliff, named as one of Vanity Fair‘s top 10 soundtracks of all time.
After Kong’s death in 1971, the group continued to record with Kong’s former sound engineer, Warrick Lyn. Their re-instated producer Byron Lee renamed them Toots & the Maytals. The group released three best-selling albums produced by Lyn and Blackwell of Island Records, and enjoyed international hits with Funky Kingston in 1973 and Reggae Got Soul in 1975. Music critic Lester Bangs described the album Funky Kingston in Stereo Review as “perfection, the most exciting and diversified set of reggae tunes by a single artist yet released”. Chris Blackwell had a strong commitment to Toots and the Maytals, saying “I’ve known Toots longer than anybody – much longer than Bob (Bob Marley). Toots is one of the purest human beings I’ve met in my life, pure almost to a fault.”
In October 1975, Toots and the Maytals were broadcast live on KMET-FM as they performed at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. This broadcast was re-mastered and released as an album entitled Sailin’ On via Klondike Records.
Following the release of Reggae Got Soul, Toots & the Maytals were invited to tour as the opening act for the Who during their 1975–76 North American tour.
Toots and the Maytals’ compositions experienced a resurgence of popularity in 1978–80 during the reggae punk and ska revival period in the UK, when the Specials covered “Monkey Man” on their 1979 debut album and the Clash covered the group’s hit “Pressure Drop”. During this period Toots and the Maytals were also included in the lyrics to Bob Marley & the Wailers’ song, “Punky Reggae Party”: “The Wailers will be there, the Damned, the Jam, the Clash, the Maytals will be there, Dr. Feelgood too”.
In 2011, director George Scott and producer Nick De Grunwald released the documentary Reggae Got Soul: The Story of Toots and the Maytals, which was featured on BBC. Described as “The untold story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica”, it features appearances by Marcia Griffiths, Jimmy Cliff, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Anthony DeCurtis, Ziggy Marley, Chris Blackwell, Paolo Nutini, Sly Dunbar, and Robbie Shakespeare.
The 2012 live album Unplugged on Strawberry Hill gained Hibbert his fifth Grammy nomination.
In May 2013, Hibbert was struck in the head with a 1.75-litre vodka bottle while performing onstage at a Richmond, Virginia, festival. His injuries resulted in a concussion and treatment required six staples in his head. After the injury, the singer canceled all subsequent performances, citing fear of his audience and no longer feeling safe performing.
In 2015, Vogue listed the song “54-46 Was My Number” by Toots and the Maytals as one of their “15 Roots Reggae Songs You Should Know”; and in an interview with Patricia Chin of VP Records, Vogue listed the group as part of an abbreviated list of early “reggae royalty” that recorded at Studio 17 in Kingston, Jamaica which included Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear, Toots and the Maytals, The Heptones, and Bunny Wailer.
In 2016 Toots and the Maytals announced a return to the stage with their first tour in 3 years, and on June 15 at The Observatory North Park in San Diego the group returned to the stage for the first time since 2013.
In 2017 Toots and the Maytals played Coachella Fest April 16 and 23 at 4:20 pm. They became the second reggae-based group to perform at the Coachella festival, after Chronixx in 2016.
Toots and the Maytals have been cited as inspiration for other music artists when it comes to career longevity. Jamaican artist Sean Paul explains this by saying, “I’ve seen some great people in my industry, you know, people like Toots … Toots and the Maytals. Toots he’s a great reggae artist and he’s still doing it … He’s up there in years and he’s doing it. Those kind of artists inspire me. I know I’m just going to keep on doing music as long as I can.”
On June 24, 2017 at the Glastonbury Festival, reggae group Toots and the Maytals were slotted for 5:30 with BBC Four scheduled to show highlights from their set. When they did not show it was suspected they missed their time slot, and BBC broadcaster Mark Radcliffe apologised on their behalf stating, “If you were expecting Toots and the Maytals – and, frankly, we all were – it seems like they were on Jamaican time or something because they didn’t make it to the site on time.” The group credited with coining the term “reggae” in song was subsequently rescheduled by the Glastonbury Festival organizers giving them the midnight slot, with all other acts being shifted by one hour.
On July 29, 2017 Toots and The Maytals headlined the 35th anniversary of the WOMAD UK festival with a performance that was reported as “easily one of the true highlights of WOMAD 2017”.
In 2018, Toots and the Maytals launched a 50th anniversary tour with concert appearances in North America from April to August, moving to dates in the UK starting in October.
On July 25, 2018 Toots and the Maytals debuted an original song entitled “Marley” in a live performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. During The Tonight Show performance, they also played their classic hit song “Funky Kingston”.
On August 24, 2018 Toots and the Maytals performed at Lockn’ Festival in Arrington, VA. It was the first time the group has returned to perform in the state of Virginia since the incident in 2013 at a festival in Richmond, VA which lead to the group’s 3-year hiatus from live performances. At Lockn’ Festival Toots and the Maytals invited special guest Taj Mahal to accompany them on the song “Monkey Man”.