Toots Hibbert

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Toots Hibbert was a Jamaican singer and songwriter, the lead singer of Toots and the Maytals. He was born in 1942 in May Pen, the youngest child of strict Adventist preachers. He grew up with gospel in the church choir. At the age of eleven he was an orphan and went to live with his brother in Trenchtown, Kingston. At a barber's he met Raleigh Gordon and Jerry Matthias, with whom he formed the Maytals in 1961. His great examples were Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and James Brown.

Music and breakthrough

In the mid-1960s the Maytals were one of the most popular vocal groups in Jamaica. Hibbert wrote Bam Bam, Sweet and Dandy and Pomps & Pride, which all won the national song competition. In 1966 he was locked up for 18 months for possession of marijuana, which inspired 54-46 That's My Number. His song Do the Reggay from 1968 is regarded as the source of the word reggae. Pressure Drop and the album Funky Kingston on Island Records followed. In the film The Harder They Come the group plays Sweet and Dandy, and Pressure Drop is on the soundtrack.

Influence

Hibbert kept performing for six decades. The album Live from 1980 was released within a day of being recorded, which got into the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2005 True Love won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album. He died in 2020. His voice, shaped by gospel and soul, gave reggae a warmth of its own.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1988Toots in Memphis