Frankie Campbell, chairman of Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA), is expressing condolences to the family, band members, friends, and fans worldwide of singer Toots Hibbert.

Hibbert was the face of veteran band Toots and the Maytals.

He passed away in the University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew on Friday night where he was being treated for respiratory issues. He was 77.

“Toots is one of Jamaica’s greatest hitmakers, with over 30 number one songs between 1963 to the 1980s, will be sadly missed. During the 1970s Toots became one of pop music’s great vocal influences with fans from The Beatles in the 1970s to Amy Winehouse in the 2000s,” said Campbell, who is band leader for Fab 5.

“Personally, Toots had a huge influence on Grub Cooper and Fab 5 and we would play most of his songs on our travels locally and abroad. He also did some recordings at our Stage Studios during the 1990s. JAVAA inducted Toots and the Maytals into the Jamaica Music Hall of Fame in 2009,” he continued.

Campbell told the Jamaica Observer that veteran reggae band Chalice recently covered Toots and The Maytals’ Never You Change, and Peeping Tom with Toots and Yellowman. The latter is on Fab 5’s Stage Records imprint.

“ Peeping Tom was originally done back in the ’90s… Toots did a lot of work in our studios, Fab 5 studios, for about five or six years, and obviously, it was fun working with Toots. Hundreds of people have done over his songs over the years. I’m talking some big rock artistes, and some big white people all over the world,” he said.

“If you notice that Toots [and the Maytals’] songs appear in a lot of American commercials. They’ve used Dog War, they’ve used Monkey Man, they’ve used quite a number of his songs in major commercials in major companies. So his publishing is still strong,” he said.

— Brian Bonitto