Bob Marley Remains ‘Legend’ In Our Own Time

The most enduring songs in the world revolve around the most popular four-letter word in the world, and reggae maestro, Bob Marley, is one of a handful of artists who has made a deep and lasting impression with their ideas about love and peace through their music.

To this day, the world maintains an indelible imprint of Bob Marley in its DNA. The old, young, and the not-yet-born, are still “Jammin” with the Master Statesman and great humanitarian, Bob Marley.

NPR reports that the recent Billboard album sales chart lists the reggae artists’ masterpiece, Legend, which took nearly 30 years to rise to its highest No. 5 spot.

Released on May 1, 1984, the greatest hits album, Legend, by Bob Marley and the Wailers, reached No. 54 on the Billboard 200 at its highest peak ever — until now.

Legend went on to a very lengthy run on the list, previously peaking at No. 18 in 2012. The Marley release typically sells between 3,000 and 5,000 copies per week, and has sold 11.6 million copies in the United States since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the release has been certified as selling 15 million copies of Marley’s album before 1991.

The new rise of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Legend is tied to a special price cut. Billboard reports that sales of the album rose to 41,000 units, up more than 1,000 percent, after music service Google Play slashed the price to 99 cents from around $9.

On the new Billboard 200 chart, Marley’s Legend is wedged between Ariana Grande and Counting Crows, a world of difference from its debut release in 1984, when Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Purple Rain by Prince dominated the charts.

According to a report released by The Inquisitr Legend also secures its biggest sales week since the frame ending Jan. 3, 1993, when Bob Marley’s record sold 43,000 copies. Industry sources suggest about 38,000 of Marley’s sales in the week came from the Google store.

The leap gives Marley his highest peak on the Billboard 200, surpassing the No. 8 pinnacle of Rastaman Vibration in 1976, Marley’s only other top 10 effort.

Bob Marley’s untimely death from melanoma at the age of 32 in 1981 reminds all of us that the “One Love” we share is really the greatest hit of all, and that old “Legends” never die.

Bob Marley — the stuff legends are made of — is still ‘living proof’ that hit material never goes out of style.

[Image via Postiar]

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