Toots & The Maytals

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...

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