Toots & the Maytals: Funky Kingston [MUSIC ON VINYL]

Why you'll love it

This Music On Vinyl reissue is pressed on 180g vinyl in the EU. It captures Toots Hibbert, one of reggae's founding voices, at full power, with the prize-winning "Pomps and Pride" and the rolling title track.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Toots Hibbert grew up singing gospel in church in May Pen, Jamaica, and you can hear every pew of it in his voice. By the time of Funky Kingston, his 1968 single Do the Reggay had already given an entire genre its name, and the Maytals, with Raleigh Gordon and Jerry Matthias beside him, were one of the island's best-loved vocal groups, winning the national song contest three times with songs he wrote.

The album was recorded at Dynamic Sounds in Kingston and Island Studios in London, with Chris Blackwell, Dave Bloxham and Warwick Lyn producing. "Funky Kingston" is a sweaty, horn-driven groove, "Pomps and Pride" won Jamaica's National Popular Song Contest in 1972, and "Sit Right Down" opens the record with a swing. Toots turns Richard Berry's "Louie, Louie" into a reggae party, slows down for "I Can't Believe" and "Daddy's Home," and sings his own "Redemption Song" with real fire.

Hibbert cited Otis Redding, Ray Charles and James Brown as heroes, and this is the album where that soul side shines brightest. A rock and roll standard reborn in Kingston, as it turns out, needs no translation at all.

Also at Kops: more Toots & the Maytals on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Tracklist

Listen

On Music On Vinyl / Island (cat# MOVLP2327), a reissue of the 1973 album.