They made their mark as a rocksteady and ska band, coming up with a 1968 dance hit, "Do the Reggay," as those genres were mutating into reggae, a new force to be reckoned with. "Sweet and Dandy" (1969) was added to the 1972 soundtrack of the Jimmy Cliff film The Harder They Come, which anticipated the reggae explosion as much as it brought newcomers like me up to speed. While I enjoyed the movie in the theater, the record will continue to stay in my psyche.
Toots' singing was drenched in world music and American soul and elevated Funky Kingston (the 1972 LP that was even better when Island Records tinkered with the track selections three years later) to indespensible status. The U.S. version added the relentless "Pressure Drop" and a humor laden take on John Denver's "Take Me Home Country Roads" (retitled "Country Road"). The title cut remains an absolute masterpiece.
In 1976, I was entertainment editor at my college newspaper, dying to hear Toots & the Maytals' then-new Reggae Got Soul but I couldn't afford to buy it. So I copied a print ad for the record and stuck it in the paper, figuring I could get the word out about Toots and reggae, if nothing else.
In 1980, working a grocery job I couldn't stand, I enlivened the overnight shifts I sometimes was scheduled to work by putting the live version of "54-46, That Was My Number" on the PA system while the stockers worked and I ran the dusk 'til dawn cash register. It's a terrific audience participation tune and it went over well in the store.
I've got many Toots & the Maytals favorites, including "Louie Louie" (off the rails good), their collaboration with Willie Nelson on "Still Is Still Moving to Me" from their guest stars album True Love (2004) and certainly 1988's Toots In Memphis, the solo set where Toots handles soul classics by Otis Redding and Al Green so beautifully.
Toots Hibbert was a giant who electrified audiences all around the globe and will be so missed.