Toots & The Maytals

Genres:	Action & Adventure • Musicals & The Arts • Reggae
Descriptive "tags":	reggae • ska • jamaica • roots • rocksteady • roots reggae • jamaican • early reggae • skinhead reggae
Decades Active:	1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	BBC Music • Official Homepage • Wikipedia

Biography

Arguably, the Maytals were only ever kept from becoming ‘international’ artists by the runaway success of Bob Marley And The Wailers in the 70s. Rumour has it that Island Records’ Chris Blackwell originally only signed the Wailers because he was unable to obtain the Maytals’ signatures at the time. Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert (1945, May Pen, Jamaica, West Indies), Nathaniel ‘Jerry’ Matthias/McCarthy (b. 1939, Portland, Jamaica, West Indies) and Henry ‘Raleigh’ Gordon (b. 1937, St. Andrew, Jamaica, West Indies) came together in 1962 at the start of Jamaica’s ska craze and began recording for Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One organization. With a hoarse vocal from Hibbert, backed by an impenetrable wall of sound, it was not long before the Maytals were the number one vocal group in Jamaica - a position they maintained throughout the 60s and on into the 70s.

They left Dodd after some massive hits...

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