Reggae Got Soul by Toots and the Maytals

Reggae Got Soul landed on Island in July 1976, with Chris Blackwell producing, and its title says what Toots and the Maytals had been proving for years. These are the Jamaicans whose "Do the Reggay" handed the music its name back in 1968, and frontman Toots Hibbert sings like a soul man in the Otis Redding mold, all grit and fire and sly good humor.

The title song had already gone out as a single in Jamaica and America in 1975, reaching Britain the next year. Robert Christgau loved the voice, its warmth and vivacity, but grumbled that nothing here, not even "Rasta Man" or "True Love Is Hard to Find", matched the group's great early hits. Fair enough, maybe, but a middling Toots record still skanks harder than most bands' best.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.