土司与梅托乐团

The Maytals, also known as Toots and the Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group. Formed in the early 1960s, they were key figures in popularizing reggae music globally, with their use of ska and rocksteady. Frontman Toots Hibbert (1942–2020) has often been compared to Bob Marley and Otis Redding, and has been deemed one of the 100 Greatest Singers by Rolling Stone. According to Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, "The Maytals were unlike anything else ... sensational, raw, and dynamic."

Their 1968 single "Do the Reggay" was the first song to use the word reggae, coining the name of the genre and introducing it to a global audience. The Oxford English Dictionary credits Toots and the Maytals in the etymology of the word reggae. The Maytals remain an active group, following the death of Hibbert.

Career

Formation and early success

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 1950s.

The Maytals

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...[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. And then we hit the road in 1975.

The 1960s

The Maytals first had chart success when 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 in 1966 with their original song "Bam Bam". "Bam Bam" was later covered in a Dancehall style by Sister Nancy and also by Yellowman in 1982, but Toots and the Maytals were not credited or issued royalties for use of the song by either artist. They went on to win that contest two additional times. 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 marijuana, but while bailing out 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 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". Toots and the Maytals "54-46 That's My Number" became the first international reggae hit, establishing the group's presence outside Jamaica and defining the early sound of the genre.

The 1970s

In 1970 "Monkey Man" became the group's first international hit. By 1971, they signed a recording contract with Chris Blackwell's Island Records who reformed the band with Toots Hibbert as the front man backed by a hand-selected group of instrumentalists dubbed The Maytals Band. They become the biggest act in Jamaica, and had become international stars. Blackwell initially concentrated on the UK market, where previous Jamaican acts had had success. The band's albums with Island Records were released through its Dragon Records imprint. Blackwell's Island Records, "established reggae as an international genre with Toots and the Maytals, Lee Scratch Perry, and Sly and Robbie."

"It was said that the Maytals were the Beatles to the Wailers’ Rolling Stones." – Christopher Blackwell