Legend (Bob Marley and the Wailers album)
Legend is a compilation album by Bob Marley and the Wailers. It was released on 7 May 1984 by Island Records.[2] It is a greatest hits collection of singles in its original vinyl format and is the best-selling reggae album of all-time, with over 12 million sold in the US, over 3.3 million in the UK (where it is the 17th best-selling album[3]) and an estimated 25 million copies sold globally.[4][5][6] In 2003, the album was ranked number 46 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", maintaining the ranking in a 2012 revised list,[7] but dropping to number 48 in the 2020 revised list.[8]
Legend
As of April 2024, Legend has spent a total of 831 nonconsecutive weeks on the US Billboard 200 albums chart—the second longest run in the chart's history.[9][10] Also, as of April 2024, it has spent 1,130 weeks in the top 100 of the UK Albums Chart—the third longest run in that chart's history.[4][11]
Content[edit]
The album contains all ten of Bob Marley's Top 40 hit singles in the UK up to the time,[12] 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.
The cassette tape release of the album featured two extra songs, "Punky Reggae Party," the B-side to the "Jamming" single, and "Easy Skanking" from the Kaya album. A second generation compact disc remastered by Barry Diament appeared in 1990 on the Tuff Gong label. Although the disc includes the same 14 songs, the tracks are in their original album lengths rather than the edited versions for single release.
On 12 February 2002, the expanded 14-track edition with songs at album lengths were remastered for compact disc with a bonus disc consisting of 1984-vintage remixes for extended dance club singles and dub versions. In 2004, the Legend double-disc deluxe edition was reissued with the music DVD of the same name in the sound + vision deluxe edition. In 2010, Legend was made available as downloadable content for Rock Band. However, it was released without "Get Up, Stand Up", which was later included on Rock Band 3. In June 2012, a high fidelity audiophile version of the album was released on HDtracks in 96 kHz/24bit and 192 kHz/24bit resolutions. Bruno Tilley was the Art Director & Creative Consultant for the sleeve design work.[13]