Who recorded it first
Monkey Man
Not a The Specials original — a 1969 Maytals single for Leslie Kong
Because it sits on The Specials’ 1979 debut and sounds like the purest thing 2 Tone ever made, “Monkey Man” is routinely taken for a Coventry original. It is not. The Maytals recorded it in 1969 at Dynamic Studios in Kingston for producer Leslie Kong, issued on his Beverley’s label in Jamaica and on Trojan in the UK, written by the group’s own Toots Hibbert. The original was no flop — it reached No. 47 on the UK singles chart and became the group’s first international hit — but the version most British listeners can hum arrived a full decade after the record it copies.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Issued as a 7″ single in 1969 — on Leslie Kong’s Beverley’s Records in Jamaica (catalogue S.R. 090) and on Trojan Records in the UK (TR-7711), backed with “Day and Night”. Recorded at Dynamic Studios in Kingston.
Charted Reached No. 47 on the UK Singles Chart, entering in April 1970 — the group’s first international hit.
From Kingston to Coventry
1969 — the Maytals cut “Monkey Man” for Leslie Kong at Dynamic Studios in Kingston; it appears on Beverley’s S.R. 090 ↗ in Jamaica, with “Day and Night” on the B-side.
1970 — the Trojan pressing gives the group their first international hit, reaching No. 47 on the UK Singles Chart ↗.
1979 — The Specials put it on their 2 Tone debut ↗, produced by Elvis Costello and a UK No. 4, and the song becomes British.
Afterwards — General Levy (UK No. 75, 1993), Reel Big Fish (UK No. 86, 2003) and Amy Winehouse all record it, and Toots and the Maytals ↗ re-cut it with No Doubt for True Love in 2004.
Wikipedia: Monkey Man (Toots & the Maytals song)Know more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
What people get wrong
“Monkey Man” is one of the most 2 Tone-sounding songs in the 2 Tone catalogue, which is precisely why it is so often filed as a Specials original. The recording history is not in dispute.
The Specials
Their version appears on the self-titled debut released on 2 Tone on 19 October 1979, produced by Elvis Costello, an album that reached No. 4 in the UK. It is a cover, and the band described it as one.
The Maytals
Recorded in 1969 at Dynamic Studios in Kingston for producer Leslie Kong, released as a single on Beverley’s in Jamaica and Trojan in the UK, backed with “Day and Night”. It reached No. 47 on the UK singles chart.
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert
Hibbert wrote the song and sang it as the Maytals’ frontman, so the original recording and the songwriting credit sit with the same act — there is no third party in the chain.
Leslie Kong
Kong produced the 1969 session and released it on his own Beverley’s label. He is central to why the record exists, but he did not write it and is not the recording artist.
The Specials covered it in 1979. The Maytals recorded it first, in 1969, and Toots Hibbert wrote it.
Context
Why the 2 Tone version swallowed the original
The Specials did not disguise where “Monkey Man” came from — the whole design of 2 Tone was to take Jamaican records made for a Jamaican audience and play them to a British one at punk volume. What that project could not control was memory. For most British listeners in 1979 the Maytals’ single was not a record they had grown up with; it was a No. 47 entry from spring 1970 that had come and gone. Hearing the song for the first time on a chart album that reached No. 4 made the cover feel like the source.
The other reason is the label. Leslie Kong’s Beverley’s was the origin, but Trojan was the imprint that carried it into Britain, and Trojan singles circulated as dance-floor currency rather than as authored works. A decade later 2 Tone gave those same songs sleeves, faces and an argument. Attribution follows packaging.
The chronology, step by step
- 1962 — the Maytals form in Kingston as a vocal trio around Toots Hibbert.
- 1967 — the group begins working with producer Leslie Kong, whose Beverley’s label issues their records.
- 1969 — “Monkey Man”, written by Hibbert, is recorded at Dynamic Studios in Kingston and released as a single on Beverley’s in Jamaica, backed with “Day and Night”; Trojan issues it in the UK.
- 1970 — the single enters the UK chart in April and peaks at No. 47, the group’s first international hit.
- 1979 — The Specials record it for their Elvis Costello-produced debut on 2 Tone, released 19 October and peaking at No. 4 on the UK albums chart.
- Later — further versions follow from General Levy (UK No. 75, 1993), Reel Big Fish (UK No. 86, 2003) and Amy Winehouse; Toots and the Maytals re-record it with No Doubt for the 2004 album True Love.
The Specials never hid the source. British memory just started the clock in 1979.