The Maytones

The Maytones (sometimes known as The Mighty Maytones) are a Jamaican reggae vocal duo who were active between the late 1960s and until 1980.

History

The Maytones formed in the late 1960s, and comprised Vernon Buckley and Gladstone Grant, both of whom lived in May Pen in Clarendon, which inspired the group's name. After recording two rocksteady tracks for Studio One which were not released, they recorded much of their early material for Alvin Ranglin, having local hits with "Loving Reggae" and "Funny Man", and released a version of Greyhound's "Black and White" (written by Earl Robinson and David I. Arkin) in 1971. They had further Jamaican hits with love songs such as "Preaching Love", "If Loving You Was Wrong", and "Brown Girl", before adopting a roots reggae style for tracks such as "Judas", "Babylon a Fall", and "Run Babylon". They had a major success with "Madness", recorded again for Ranglin, which was followed by an album of the same name. The success of the Mighty Diamonds prompted the group and producers Ranglin and Clement Bushay to promote the duo as the Mighty Maytones. The Boat to Zion album followed in 1978, although it did not meet with the success they had hoped...

Read full biography on Wikipedia →