Bob Marley Heads For Billboard Top 10 For The First Time In 38 Years
Bob Marley’s greatest hits album, Legend, is finally heading towards the Billboard Hot 200 chart’s top 10 next week. The popular reggae album has the recognition of being the second longest chart run on the Billboard chart run of 992 non-consecutive weeks, behind Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon. Marley has only once hit the Billboard top ten with his 1976’s hit Rastaman Vibrations, peaking at Number 8.
Legend is Bob Marley’s best-selling album — the best-selling reggae album of all time and one of the best-selling albums of any genre — having sold more than 25 million copies in various formats since its original release in 1984. Upon its initial release in 1984, the Bob Marley and the Wailers greatest hits compilation originally charted No. 54. The album regularly sells between 3,000 and 5,000 a week, and reached a peak of No. 18 in 2012.
According to sources close to Universal Music Group, which distributes Legend, the reason for the album’s sudden leap in the Billboard Chart could be attributed to the Marley album being sold at a discounted price of 99 cents in the Google Play store. The album is normally sold for $8 but the album was chosen as Google Play’s album of the week, with many of the forecast sale coming from the Google discount. Bob Marley’s Legend was recently reissued in a deluxe package for its 30th anniversary, though notably, the reissue is not the version that is on sale for 99 cents.
The Bob Marley album has sold 11.6 million copies in the U.S. since 1991, when SoundScan started tracking sales. Legend is certified as selling 15 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which would account for sales before 1991. In the United Kingdom, Legend is the 18th best-selling album in the country.
Bob Marley’s Legend was released posthumously by Island Records in 1984, three years after Marley’s tragic death from cancer on May 11, 1981. The album’s track list includes hits such as “Stir It Up”, “One Love”, “Three Little Birds”, “Redemption Song,” and “I Shot the Sheriff.” The Bob Marley classic, was ranked 43rd in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest album of all times.
Bob Marley is famous for being known as the first reggae artist to gain international acclaim with his unique song-writing and distinctive vocals. Recently, Bob Marley was memorialized by Ben & Jerry in an ice cream flavor called Satisfy My Bowl. The new Bob Marley-inspired flavor is set to hit stores on September 15.
Do you believe Legend was Bob Marley’s greatest album of all time?
[Image via Flickr]
