Toots and the Maytals’ Toots Hibbert Dead at 77 - Pitchfork

Toots and the Maytals singer Frederick “Toots” Hibbert died Friday night (September 11) in Kingston, Jamaica, the BBC reports.

They won Jamaica’s National Song Prize in 1966 with Hibbert’s song “Bam Bam.” As the group expanded, they repeated the feat in 1969 with “Sweet and Dandy” and again in 1972 with “Pomps & Pride,” both of which Hibbert wrote.

In 1966, not long after winning the National Song Prize, Hibbert was sentenced to 18 months in prison on charges of marijuana possession that he says were invented by corrupt authorities.

The Maytals released their third album, Funky Kingston, in 1972 on the Island imprint Dragon Records, which helped the record cross over to the United Kingdom.

In 1975, another version of Funky Kingston was released in the United States that featured songs from In the Dark and only three of the album’s original tracks.

By Madison Bloom

By Madison Bloom

By Madison Bloom and Jazz Monroe