Though
Bob Marley,
the Wailers, and
Bob Marley & the Wailers have become interchangeable names used indiscriminately to refer to recordings actually made by separate entities, the group went through several shifts in lineup that defined particular phases. They moved from their beginnings as a teenage ska act in the early '60s to the more roots-minded line-up that created '70s masterpieces like
Catch a Fire and
Burnin'. The departure of
Peter Tosh and
Bunny Wailer in the mid-'70s marked another era of
the Wailers as did bandleader
Bob Marley's death in 1981. After that point, various offshoots of the band were formed by surviving members, keeping
the Wailers' legacy alive for new generations of fans.
The Wailers, formed in Kingston, Jamaica in 1963, were a vocal group consisting of
Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso,
Bunny Livingston,
Bob Marley, Peter McIntosh, and Cherry Smith; they were variously called the Teenagers, the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers, and finally
the Wailers.
Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had departed by 1966, leaving the trio of
Livingston,
Marley, and McIntosh. By the early '70s, they had begun playing musical instruments and added a rhythm section consisting of brothers Aston "Family Man" Barrett (bass) and
Carlton "Carly" Barrett (drums). After recording extensively in Jamaica, this unit was signed to Great Britain's Island Records, which issued their label debut,
Catch a Fire, in April 1973, followed by
Burnin' in November. These albums attracted critical attention but didn't initially chart.
By the time of
Natty Dread (1974), the original group had split, with McIntosh (later billed as
Peter Tosh) and
Livingston (later billed as
Bunny Wailer) leaving. The album was credited to
Bob Marley & the Wailers, the group consisting of
Marley, the Barretts, keyboard player Bernard "Touter" Harvey, and lead guitarist
Al Anderson, with backing vocals by the I-Threes (
Marcia Griffiths,
Rita Marley, and
Judy Mowatt). The breakthrough for this group was their appearance at the Lyceum in London on July 18, 1975. The show was recorded and quickly released on LP as
Live!, and
Marley and his reggae music became an international sensation. The success of
Eric Clapton's cover of "I Shot the Sheriff," a
Marley song from
Burnin', in the summer of 1974 had done much to popularize reggae (the original version made the U.S. R&B charts that fall), but
Marley himself had by-now achieved stardom as a performer. "No Woman, No Cry," a song originally heard on
Natty Dread, reached the U.K. charts in its live rendition in September 1975, becoming a Top 40 hit. With that, both
Natty Dread and
Live! reached the British charts. In the U.S.,
Natty Dread charted in May; it was followed by
Burnin' and
Catch a Fire in the fall. (
Live! was held back from U.S. release for a year; when it appeared, it charted in the Top 100.)
Bob Marley & the Wailers reached their commercial apex in the U.S. with the April 1976 release of their next studio album,
Rastaman Vibration, which hit the Top Ten; "Roots, Rock, Reggae" became a minor pop chart entry and a Top 40 R&B hit. At this point, the group consisted of
Marley, the Barretts, the I-Threes, keyboard player
Tyrone Downie, percussionist
Alvin "Seeco" Patterson, rhythm guitarist
Earl "Chinna" Smith, and lead guitarist
Donald Kinsey.
Exodus, released in May 1977, found
Marley & the Wailers taking a slightly more uptempo (and disco-influenced) direction; it produced three Top 40 chart hits in the U.K. ("Exodus," "Waiting in Vain," and the Top Ten "Jamming," backed by the non-LP "Punky Reggae Party"), and became their first Top Ten album in Great Britain. In the U.S., it sold about as well as
Rastaman Vibration, but the band began meeting resistance from category-conscious radio programmers who couldn't figure out whether to slot it as rock or R&B. "Exodus" became a Top 20 R&B hit and "Waiting in Vain" made the R&B Top 40, but neither single charted pop. Once again,
Marley had tinkered with the band's personnel, which for
Exodus consisted of himself, the Barretts, the I-Threes,
Downie,
Patterson, and lead guitarist
Junior Marvin.
Kaya, the fourth studio album by
Bob Marley & the Wailers, appeared in March 1978. In the U.K., it was the band's biggest success yet, reaching the Top Five, and powered by the advance single "Is This Love," which was a Top Ten hit, and by the follow-up single, "Satisfy My Soul," which reached the Top 40. But the story was far different in the U.S., where the album struggled. Black radio seemed to have decided that the band didn't fit formats dominated by disco, while pop radio was increasingly attracted to new wave sounds and treated reggae as a fad that had passed. The double-live album
Babylon by Bus, released in November and marking the return of
Al Anderson and the addition of keyboard player
Earl "Wire" Lindo, was a modest seller, again doing better in England than in America.
The fifth
Bob Marley & the Wailers studio album,
Survival, was released in October 1979. It reached the Top 20 in the U.K., with the single "So Much Trouble in the World" reaching the charts, but in the U.S., it sold only moderately well, though "Wake Up and Live" became a minor R&B chart entry.
Uprising, released in June 1980 and prefaced by the propulsive single "Could You Be Loved," gave
Marley a commercial rebound. The single and album were Top Ten hits in the U.K. The U.S. was more resistant, but "Could You Be Loved" reached the R&B charts and the album charted higher than any of the band's albums since
Exodus.
Uprising might have done better domestically if
Marley hadn't become ill shortly after its release and been forced to cancel his tour promoting it after only a few dates. His death in May 1981 of course brought an end to the band known as
Bob Marley & the Wailers, but it didn't affect
Bob Marley & the Wailers' success. Even before his death, his back catalog had begun to sell, with a British single release of "Three Little Birds" from
Exodus reaching the Top 20 in the fall of 1980. Shortly after
Marley's death, "No Woman, No Cry" was reissued and reached the U.K. Top Ten, with
Live! (retitled Live at the Lyceum) returning to the album chart. The posthumous
Confrontation was issued two years after
Marley's death, in May 1983. Both its single, "Buffalo Soldier," and the LP made their way into the U.K. Top Five. In the U.S., the single made the R&B charts, and the album was a moderate seller.
But the album that really established the defunct band as an across-the-board sales success was the hits collection
Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & the Wailers, released in the U.K. three years after
Marley's death, in May 1984, and in August in the U.S. The album topped the British charts with "One Love/People Get Ready," originally released on
Exodus, becoming a Top Five single, "Waiting in Vain" returning to the Top 40, and "Could You Be Loved" returning to the charts. American chart statistics were not as spectacular, but the album became a perennial seller; before the end of the century, it had been certified for sales of over ten million copies. Its success, in turn, stimulated sales of the
Marley catalog in the U.S., and in the '90s,
Burnin',
Live!,
Rastaman Vibration,
Exodus,
Kaya,
Uprising, and
Confrontation all went gold, while Island continued to scale the charts with compilations such as
Rebel Music (1986), Talkin' Blues (1991), and Natural Mystic (1995). Often, the focus was on
Marley alone: the 1992 four-CD box set
Songs of Freedom, which included recordings dating back to the early '60s, was billed to
Marley, not
Marley & the Wailers, as was the 1999 chart album of newly created duets
Chant Down Babylon. On the other hand, the many repackagings of '60s
Wailers' recordings have long tended to credit their wares to
Bob Marley & the Wailers, even though the material was cut by the
Livingston/McIntosh/
Marley group, and Island has long credited reissues of
Catch a Fire to
Bob Marley & the Wailers (indeed, the initial U.S. release carried that credit). Thus, in practice, recordings by
Bob Marley & the Wailers can refer to any music featuring
Marley and made in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, though careful listeners will insist that the credit should apply only to the recordings and performances of
Marley and his regular backup group from the breakup of the original
Wailers trio in 1974 to
Marley's death in 1981.
In the years following
Marley's death, subgroups stemmed out of
the Wailers' various former members. Barrett assembled
the Wailers Band in 1989, continuing to play with various lineups for decades to come. In addition to frequent touring,
the Wailers Band released albums like 1991's Majestic Warriors and 2020's One World. In 2008,
Junior Marvin and
Al Anderson splintered from
the Wailers Band to form the Original Wailers. This offshoot released debut EP Miracle in 2012, which was nominated for Best Reggae Album at that year's Grammy Awards. ~ William Ruhlmann