Early years The band formed in 1963 following self-taught musician
Peter Tosh (1944–1987) meeting the singers
Bunny Wailer (1947–2021) and
Bob Marley (1945–1981). They developed a
ska vocal group called the Teenagers. The group soon changed their name to the Wailing Rudeboys and then to the Wailing Wailers before settling on the Wailers. The band topped the Jamaican charts in 1964 with "
Simmer Down", which was recorded at Studio One with the rhythm section from the studio house band
the Skatalites. "Simmer Down" was a message to the Jamaican rude boys to "simmer down, oh cool your temper" and became an overnight hit. The record played an essential role in changing the musical agenda in Jamaica from imitating foreign artists, to capturing the lives and spirit of Jamaica. Wailer, Marley and Tosh recorded with
Lee "Scratch" Perry and his studio band
the Upsetters. They also worked with renowned
reggae producer
Leslie Kong, who used his studio musicians, called Beverley's All-Stars (
Jackie Jackson,
Paul Douglas,
Gladstone Anderson,
Winston Wright, Rad Bryan,
Hux Brown) to record the songs that would be released as an album titled
The Best of The Wailers. By late 1963, singers
Junior Braithwaite,
Beverley Kelso, and
Cherry Smith had joined the group. The line-up consisted of Braithwaite on vocals, Marley on guitar, Tosh on keyboard, Wailer on percussion, with Smith and or Kelso on backing vocals. Kelso remembered those early recordings fondly: In 1965, Kelso left the band. Marley, Tosh, Wailer and Braithwaite took turns on lead vocals. Braithwaite left shortly after providing lead vocals for the single "It Hurts to be Alone", leaving the band consisting of the trio of Wailer, Marley and Tosh. Constantine "Dream" Walker provided backing vocals from 1966 to 1967. In May 1970, the band recorded with renowned reggae producer Leslie Kong; producing
The Best of the Wailers, which they released later in 1971 as their fourth album. Over the rest of 1970 and 1971, the band worked with Lee 'Scratch' Perry, producing the band's second and third albums,
Soul Rebels (1970) and
Soul Revolution Part II (1971). During this time, the Upsetters members
Aston "Family Man" Barrett (bass) and his brother
Carlton Barrett (drums) were recruited as instrumental backing for The Wailers.
Signing to Island Records In 1972, while in London, the Wailers asked their road manager Brent Clarke to introduce them to
Chris Blackwell, who had licensed some of their
Coxsone releases for his
Island Records. The Wailers felt they were due royalties from these releases. Blackwell was not convinced, but he was impressed by their character. He thought they "exuded power and self-possession" despite being poor. Despite not having seen the band perform live, he advanced them £4,000 to record an album. He did not even require them to sign anything, feeling they deserved a break.
Jimmy Cliff, Island's top reggae star, had recently left the label. His departure may have primed Blackwell to find a replacement. In Marley, Blackwell recognized the elements needed to snare the rock audience: "I was dealing with rock music, which was really rebel music. I felt that would really be the way to break Jamaican music. But you needed someone who could be that image. When Bob walked in, he really was that image". The Wailers returned to Jamaica to record at Harry J's in Kingston, which resulted in the foundational tracks what would make up the album
Catch a Fire. Primarily recorded on an eight-track,
Catch a Fire marked the first time a reggae band had access to a state-of-the-art studio and were accorded the same care as their rock 'n' roll peers. He restructured Marley's mixes and arrangements. The tracks were overdubbed with the help of
Wayne Perkins on guitar and
John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboard. Their name is a spin on the
Rastafarian "
I and I" concept of the
Godhead within each person. The album
Natty Dread was released in 1974, the first without Tosh and Livingston and with the I-Threes. It featured "
No Woman, No Cry", a seminal song in the Wailers' canon, along with "Lively Up Yourself" and the more political "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)". In 1975 a live version of "No Woman, No Cry", recorded at the
Lyceum Theatre in London during the
Natty Dread tour, became Bob Marley & the Wailers' first successful single outside reggae circles, reaching No. 22 on the UK singles chart. Perry released two compilation albums for
Trojan Records in 1974,
Rasta Revolution and
African Herbsman, which contained songs from
Soul Rebels and
Soul Revolution Part II, respectively, and he was the copyright holder of several songs from these albums. These changes caused a major dispute between Marley and Perry, when the former saw the albums, six months after their publication, in the Half Way Road in England. Bob Marley & the Wailers' next album, 1976's
Rastaman Vibration, was a breakthrough success in the US, reaching No. 8 on the
Billboard 200 chart. The song "
War" featured lyrics taken directly from the text of a
Haile Selassie speech. The album credits numerous songwriters, including Bob and Rita Marley, the Barretts and Marley's childhood mentor and friend
Vincent Ford amongst others. Marley was in dispute with publishing company Cayman Music and sought to avoid contractual entanglements by putting the songs in the names of his family and friends, and provide them with potential future income. Also in 1976, Bunny Wailer (Livingston) released his debut solo album
Blackheart Man, with Marley and Tosh contributing backing vocals and the Barretts forming the rhythm section on some tracks. Peter Tosh also released his first solo album entitled
Legalize It. Marley and Livingston received co-writing credits on some of the songs. Most of the then-current Wailers band (the Barretts, Anderson, Downie) played on the record, with Rita Marley providing backing vocals.
Stay in London and Exodus Following an
assassination attempt at their home in
Kingston in December 1976, the Marleys moved to London, England in early 1977. Most of the current Wailers line-up followed, with Marley also recruiting Jamaican-born, London-raised guitarist
Junior Marvin. This line-up recorded the next Bob Marley & the Wailers album,
Exodus, released in June, 1977. The album title (and title track) were conceived in response to Jamaican Prime Minister
Michael Manley's campaign slogan, 'We Know Where We're Going'. Featuring downbeat reggae rhythms fused with elements of soul, blues and English rock,
Exodus was a top-20 hit in the US and UK while the song "
Exodus" was No. 1 in Jamaica.
Exodus also featured numerous songs which would go on to be hits and iconic Bob Marley & the Wailers tunes in their own right, including "
Jamming", "
Waiting In Vain", a new version of 1965's "
One Love/People Get Ready" and the carefree, optimistic "
Three Little Birds". In 1999,
Time magazine named
Exodus the greatest album of the 20th century, and the album has continued to feature in best-of-all-time lists. In March 1978 the album
Kaya was released. The record was coolly received by critics, who found it lightweight and uninspired following
Exodus. Nevertheless,
Kaya went top-5 in the
UK Albums Chart and contained the hit single "
Is This Love".
Kaya also contained new versions of three songs from 1971's
Soul Revolution II. Bob Marley & the Wailers toured Europe extensively in support of
Kaya, resulting in the live album
Babylon by Bus, also released in 1978.
Return to Jamaica and later years , 1980 Marley and the Wailers returned to Jamaica in April 1978 to play the
One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, aimed at calming political tensions and violence in their home country. Near the end of the concert Marley joined hands on stage with Manley and opposition leader
Edward Seaga. Bob Marley had a lifelong interest in Africa, having visited Ethiopia briefly in 1978. Themes of African independence and pan-African unity dominated 1979's overtly political album
Survival. Songs including "Africa Unite", "Zimbabwe" and "Wake Up and Live" made Marley's feelings plain, while the single "
One Drop" employed a double-meaning of the
reggae rhythm used in the song and a
system of racial classification used in the US. In 1980, Bob Marley (absent Wailers) was invited to perform "Zimbabwe" at the country's Independence Day celebrations. In 1977, following persistent pain in his right big toe, Bob Marley had been diagnosed with
acral lentiginous melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer. Doctors recommended amputation of the toe, but Marley refused for religious reasons; he also feared it would hinder stage performance. Bob Marley & the Wailers pressed on, planning extensive worldwide tours. The last Bob Marley & the Wailers' album released in Marley's lifetime,
Uprising, appeared in June 1980. An assertive affirmation of Marley's
Rastafarian beliefs, the album contained the song "
Forever Loving Jah"; the solo acoustic, folk-based "
Redemption Song", believed by some to be Marley's finest song; and the successful single "
Could You Be Loved". The band embarked on a US tour to promote the album. One of the last performances that included Marley was in 1980 at
Madison Square Garden. His final live show was performed at the Stanley Theater in
Pittsburgh. By September 1980, Marley could no longer perform live. He sought alternative cancer treatments in Europe before attempting to return home to Jamaica. Marley's condition worsened on the flight and he died in a Miami hospital on May 11, 1981.
Post Bob Marley death A Bob Marley & the Wailers album,
Confrontation, was released in May 1983, two years after Bob Marley's death. It contained unreleased and
demo songs recorded during Marley's lifetime. Backing vocals by the I-Threes were added to several of the songs to give the album some consistency. "
Buffalo Soldier", a single released from the album, was a top-10 hit in the UK. The music of Marley,
Tosh and
Wailer enjoyed considerable success as reggae music continued to gain popularity during the 1980s. In 1984 Island Records released a Bob Marley & the Wailers 'greatest hits' album, entitled
Legend. The album contains all ten of the Wailers' top-40 UK hits, plus "Redemption Song" and three songs from the Marley/Tosh/Livingston era, "Stir It Up", "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff".
Legend went to No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and peaked at No. 5 in the US, but it has stayed in the Billboard 200 and UK top 100 since release. It is officially the biggest-selling reggae album ever, with an estimated 28 million copies sold globally (as of 2024).
Carlton Barrett and Tosh died —both of them murdered— in 1987.
Braithwaite was murdered in 1999.
The Wailers Band was formed by
Aston Barrett in 1989.
The Original Wailers was instead formed by
Anderson and
Marvin in 2008, the same year in which
Cherry Smith died. The rest of the original members of the band died within a few years of each other:
Earl Lindo died in 2017, and both
Alvin "Seeco" Patterson and Bunny Wailer (Livingston) died in 2021. Keyboardist
Tyrone Downie died in 2022, and Aston Barrett died in February 2024.
Donald Kinsey died in February 2024, on Bob Marley's birthday, February 6, three days after the loss of Aston Barrett.
Legacy In 2001,
Catch a Fire was reissued as a double album, with the first part being the previously unreleased 'Jamaican' versions of the song without Blackwell's overdubs and the second part being the album as it was released in 1972. ==Band members==