Artist · chart history · #557 in indie & aaa artist polls
Toots and the Maytals
Band Kingston Jamaica Formed 1963
Toots and the Maytals formed in 1963 in Kingston, Jamaica. Toots and the Maytals has 38 chart appearances on 30 radio countdowns from 13 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Pressure Drop”, which appears on 21 lists with a best position of #129. The station that charted Toots and the Maytals most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 8 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2004.
Out of Kingston came Toots and the Maytals, with a ferocious gospel-soul shouter named Toots Hibbert at the front, and they didn't just ride the island's changing beat, they gave it a name. Their 1968 single "Do the Reggay" was the first record to use the word, and the Oxford English Dictionary traces reggae straight back to them.
They'd come up through ska and rocksteady, and by the time of Sweet and Dandy in 1968 they had the loose, loping new rhythm down cold. "Pressure Drop" is all menace and swing, "Monkey Man" is pure mischief, and "54-46 (Thats My Number)" struts and hollers over a rubbery bass line. Hibbert sings like Otis Redding stranded in a Kingston yard, and people have compared him to both Redding and Bob Marley ever since. Island Records boss Chris Blackwell called them raw and sensational, and he wasn't exaggerating.
Funky Kingston followed in 1973 and Reggae Got Soul in 1976, carrying that sanctified fire into the next decade. Hibbert, born in 1942, died in 2020, and the Maytals carried on after him.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Toots and the Maytals on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pressure Drop | 21 | #129 | – | – | |
| 2 | Funky Kingston | 6 | #58 | – | – | |
| 3 | Take Me Home, Country Roads | 2 | #103 | – | – | |
| 4 | Time Tough | 1 | #559 | – | – | |
| 5 | Monkey Man | 1 | #71 | – | 2004 | |
| 6 | Got To Be Tough | 2 | #78 | – | 2020 | |
| 7 | 54-46 (Thats My Number) | 1 | #1783 | – | – | |
| 8 | True Love Is Hard to Find | 1 | #864 | – | – | |
| 9 | Reggae Got Soul | 1 | #1922 | – | – | |
| 10 | Hard to Handle | 1 | #870 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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