Bob Marley’s Legend Album Reigns Supreme on Billboard Magazine Charts

by Howard Campbell

SOUTH FLORIDA – Three months before the release of a movie on his life, Bob Marley is riding high. Legend, the 1984 compilation album of his most popular songs, is on several Billboard Magazine charts.

The publication, in its annual year-end charts, shows Legend topping the Reggae Albums table for the fourth straight year. It has been number one that chart for 201 non-consecutive weeks.

Legend also finished the year at number 66 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, number 10 on Top R&B Albums chart, number 24 on Catalog Albums, number 34 on Top R&B/Hip-hop Albums, and number 34 on the Top Album Sales chart.

Released in 1984 by Island Records, three years after Marley’s death, Legend has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. It contains songs that helped make the Jamaican Rastafarian a superstar, including Get up, Stand Up,  and Stir it Up. Plus,  No Woman No Cry, Satisfy my Soul,  Could You be Loved, Waiting in Vain,  Exodus,  and One Love.

Last September, Legend became only the second album after Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon, to spend 800 weeks in the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

Bob Marley: One Love is the title of the Paramount Pictures movie about his rise to global fame. Directed by American Reinaldo Marcus-Green, it stars British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley.

Some of its final scenes, including for the One Love Peace Concert in April, 1978, were filmed in Kingston last March. Bob Marley: One Love will be released in February,  celebrated as Reggae Month in Jamaica.

Best of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection, is number two on the Reggae Albums chart for 2023. Dutty Classics Collection by Sean Paul closed the year in third.