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Toots Hibbert
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Toots Hibbert

1961–2020

Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert, (8 December 1942 – 11 September 2020) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist for the reggae and ska band Toots and the Maytals. A reggae pioneer, he performed for six decades and helped establish some of the fundamentals of reggae music. Hibbert's 1968 song "Do the Reggay" is widely credited as the genesis of the genre name reggae. His band's album True Love won a Grammy Award in 2005.

Early life

Hibbert was born on 8 December 1942 in May Pen, Jamaica, the youngest of his siblings. Hibbert's parents were both strict Seventh-day Adventist preachers so he grew up singing gospel music in a church choir. Both parents died young and, by the age of 11, Hibbert was an orphan who went to live with his brother John in the Trenchtown neighborhood of Kingston. While working at a local barbershop, he met his future bandmates Raleigh Gordon and Jerry Matthias.

Career

1960s

Hibbert, a multi-instrumentalist, formed Toots and the Maytals in 1961. He could play every instrument used in his band and would later cite Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, and James Brown as key influences. According to Hibbert, Maytals...

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Rocksteady Reggae

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Albums

Toots in Memphis

6 tracks · 1988

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From the archive

Career timeline

Stories about Toots Hibbert from the JamaicansMusic archive, oldest first · 1962–2013

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  1. 1962

    Music

    The Maytals Take Shape in Kingston: Toots Hibbert, Raleigh Gordon and Jerry Matthias Form a Vocal Trio, 1962

    Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert leaves May Pen for Trench Town, meets Henry ‘Raleigh’ Gordon and Jerry Matthias, and puts together the harmony group that will carry his voice from ska through rocksteady into reggae. First called the Vikings, then the Maytals — a name borrowed in part from his home town.

  2. 1968

    Music

    ‘Do the Reggay’: Toots Hibbert Gives the Music Its Name, 1968

    After ‘54-46 That’s My Number’ puts the Maytals in Kingston’s top rank, Toots Hibbert records a dance-craze single whose title compresses ‘streggae’ into ‘reggay’ — and, in his telling, coins the word that will name an entire genre.

  3. 1969

    Music

    ‘Monkey Man’: The Maytals Break Abroad and Leslie Kong Delivers Their First UK Chart Single, 1969

    Produced by Leslie Kong on Beverley’s, ‘Monkey Man’ turns a lover’s warning into one of the Maytals’ defining hits — and their first real signal outside Jamaica, scraping the lower reaches of the British charts and setting up a decade of covers.

  4. 1970

    Music

    ‘Pressure Drop’: A Leslie Kong Classic Becomes a Soundtrack Cornerstone, 1970

    Toots Hibbert writes one of reggae’s most durable prayers against injustice — a Leslie Kong production that lands on The Harder They Come soundtrack and later earns a second life through punk and rock covers.

  5. 1972

    Music

    ‘Funky Kingston’: Chris Blackwell Signs Toots and the Maytals to Island and Takes Reggae to the Rock Audience, 1972

    After Leslie Kong’s death, the Maytals become Toots and the Maytals on Island Records. Funky Kingston — recorded in Jamaica and mixed in London — is the album that puts Hibbert’s voice in front of the rock crowd Rolling Stone would later rank among the 500 greatest.

  6. 1975

    Music

    ‘Reggae Got Soul’: Toots and the Maytals Declare Their Gospel-R&B Lineage on Island, 1975

    The title says what Toots Hibbert always was — a soul singer in a reggae band. On Island’s Mango imprint, Reggae Got Soul packages the Maytals’ church-bred phrasing and hard Kingston rhythms for the album market at the peak of their touring years.

  7. 2004

    Music

    ‘True Love’: Toots and the Maytals Win Best Reggae Album at the 47th Grammy Awards, 2004

    Four decades after Studio One, Toots Hibbert finally takes home the Grammy — a star-studded remake album pairing his voice with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson and others on the classics that built his name.

  8. 2013

    Music

    Reggae at the Grammys: A Bob Marley Tribute on the Main Stage While Toots and the Maytals Are Nominated for Reggae Got Soul: Unplugged on Strawberry Hill, 2013

    At the 55th Grammy Awards on February 10, 2013, Bruno Mars, Sting, Rihanna and the Marley sons pay tribute to Bob Marley on national television — while Toots Hibbert, reggae’s other founding export, sits in the Best Reggae Album field for Reggae Got Soul: Unplugged on Strawberry Hill.

2 more stories about Toots Hibbert in the archive →

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