The Sensational Maytals

By the time Toots & The Maytals recorded their second album, *Sensational Maytals*, they were already veterans of the Jamaican studio scene, having recorded with Coxsone Dodd at Studio One and with the tirelessly self-promoting DJ Prince Buster. The sides that The Maytals recorded for these producers were raw and viscerally electrifying, pairing frantic ska rhythms with vocal performances of a positively Pentecostal intensity. On *The Sensational Maytals*, the gospel-influenced fervor of these early sides is exchanged for a more restrained sound. It borrows as much from the slow burn of American soul ballads as from the beatific hosannas of Jamaican religious services. VP’s deluxe reissue of *The Sensational Maytals* includes the 12 tracks that appeared on the album’s original 1965 release. It adds six extra Byron Lee–produced sides from the same period, including the Toots-penned “Bam Bam”: a tune that won the group top honors at Jamaica’s first Independence Festival Popular Song Competition.

Like so many of Jamaica's greatest groups, the Maytals launched their career at Studio One, and then like so many that found fame, the group then switched its allegiance, first making the studio rounds, before spending a spell with Prince Buster.