Bob Marley Still Number One, 39 Years After Death

By NAN ET Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Aug. 28, 2020: Reggae legend Robert ‘Nesta’ Marley has been dead for 39 years but is still ranking at number one on the Billboard Reggae chart this week.

The legendary Jamaican singer, known globally as Bob Marley, has been holding the number one spot on the chart for the last 33 weeks with his ‘Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers,’ album. It has also spent a total of 609 nonconsecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart, the second longest run in history.

And as of July 2020, it has spent 932 weeks in the top 100 of the UK Albums Chart, the third longest run in the chart’s history.

The compilation album by Marley and The Wailers, was released in May 1984 by Island Records, three years after the singer’s death. It was recorded between 1972–1983 and is described as the greatest hits collection of singles in its original vinyl format and the best-selling reggae album of all-time. Over 11 million copies have been sold in the US and over 3.3 million in the UK.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 46 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.

The album contains all ten of Bob Marley’s Top 40 hit singles in the UK plus three songs from the original Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston in “Stir It Up,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” and “Get Up, Stand Up,” along with the closing song from the album Uprising, “Redemption Song.” Of the original tracks, only four date from prior to the Exodus album.