Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert, born December 8, 1942, in May Pen, Jamaica, was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who fronted the reggae and ska group Toots and the Maytals. Raised by Seventh-day Adventist preacher parents, he sang gospel music in a church choir before moving to the Trenchtown neighborhood of Kingston at age 11, where he co-founded the vocal group Toots and the Maytals in 1961 alongside Raleigh Gordon and Jerry Matthias. The group won Jamaica's National Popular Song Contest with “Bam Bam” in 1966 and “Sweet and Dandy” in 1969, and achieved renown with their 1968 single “Do the Reggay”, which coined the name of the reggae genre. Their notable singles include “54-46 That's My Number” in 1968 and “Pressure Drop” in 1969, the latter featured on the soundtrack of the 1972 feature film The Harder They Come, in which Hibbert also appeared. The group released their debut album on Island Records, Funky Kingston, in 1973, followed by Reggae Got Soul in 1976 and his solo studio album Toots in Memphis in 1988. In 2005, the group won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for True Love. Hibbert continued to record and tour until his death from COVID-19 complications in Kingston on September 11, 2020, at age 77.
