A Reggae Legend

by Bernhard Hanneken

While they never achieved the commercial success or cultural impact of the Wailers, Toots & the Maytals were nearly as important in the history of Jamaican music; like the Wailers, the Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and thrived as ska gave way to rocksteady and then evolved into reggae, they boasted one of the island’s finest singers and most charismatic frontmen in the great Toots Hibbert (named one of the 100 Greatest Singers by 'Rolling Stone'), and they worked with many of the most important producers and sidemen on the island. The Maytals were also the band that most clearly demonstrated the links between Jamaican sounds and American R&B. They are responsible for some of the biggest (and frequently covered) hits in reggae history, including 'Do the Reggay', released in 1968, which was the first song to first use the word “reggae” and gave the developing genre its name.

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