Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and The Wailers has achieved yet another milestone, certified 18x platinum by the Recording Industry Association OF America (RIAA) as of December 9, 2012. The iconic compilation album received the award for sales and streams surpassing 18 million units in the U.S., extending its lead as the best selling reggae album of all time.
It continues to reign atop the US Billboard Reggae Albums chart, holding the record for the most weeks at No. 1—an astounding 256 weeks for the chart ending December 14, 2024. First released in 1984, Legend’s enduring success is no accident but a testament to strategic marketing genius, as revealed in Island Records Founder Chris Blackwell’s memoir, The Islander: My Life In Music and Beyond.
Blackwell credits Dave Robinson, Jimi Hendrix’s former tour manager and Island Records President (1984–1986), as the mastermind behind transforming Bob Marley from a reggae icon into a global household name.
By the time Marley passed in 1981, his fame was undeniable, yet his record sales fell short of his widespread recognition. Robinson, who had earlier made waves with Stiff Records, identified the need to reintroduce Marley’s music to a broader, more diverse audience. Using scientific market research, Robinson zeroed in on casual record buyers—those who enjoyed Marley’s “hookier, more hummable” songs but were deterred by his militant image and reggae’s niche genre appeal.
Island’s reggae catalog curator, Trevor Wyatt, compiled a list of potential songs for a best-of album, which market researchers tested with different age groups. The feedback led to the exclusion of politically charged tracks from Marley’s militant 1979 album Survival, such as “Africa Unite” and “Zimbabwe.” The goal was clear: create a universally appealing album that transcended reggae’s niche and rebranded Marley as an entertainer rather than a revolutionary.
The result was Legend, a carefully curated compilation designed to resonate with a global audience. The marketing deliberately avoided the term “reggae,” instead positioning Marley as a charismatic and approachable artist. Blackwell explains that even the album cover was crafted to present Marley as a “striking and inoffensive entertainer” rather than the sacred freedom fighter many of his fans revered.
“Bob Marley had written, ‘money is not richness, my richness is to walk barefoot on the earth,’ but Robinson wanted to sell him, not sanctify him,” Blackwell reflects.
The gamble paid off. Legend became the quintessential Bob Marley album—the one everyone had to own. However, Robinson later described his tenure at Island as bittersweet, telling The Independent in 2006, “I had a big hand in the success of Legend… but Blackwell kind of double-crossed me after I’d essentially saved his arse.”
