Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers

Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers is a compilation album by Jamaican reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers, originally released in May 1984 via Island Records and Tuff Gong Records.

Bob Marley & The Wailers were originally formed as a ska vocalist when self-taught musician Hubert Winston McIntosh (Peter Tosh) met the singers Neville Livingston (Bunny Wailer), and Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley) in 1963, and were later joined by singers Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith.

By the early 1970s, Bob and Bunny had learned to play some instruments and brothers Carlton Barrett and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on drums and bass had joined what was now a reggae band. And after Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh left the band in 1974, Bob Marley began touring with new band members, consisting of the Barrett brothers, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The "I Threes", consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, provided backing vocals.

Legend is a greatest hits collection of their singles, and is the best-selling reggae album of all-time, with over 15 million copies sold in the United States and an estimated 28 million copies sold globally.

The album contains all ten of Marley's Top 40 hit singles in the UK up to that time in 1984, plus three songs from the original Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, being "Stir It Up", "I Shot the Sheriff" and "Get Up, Stand Up".

Other hit singles include "Redemption Song", "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain", "Could You Be Loved" and "Buffalo Soldier".

As at April 2017, the album had spent a total of 465 non-consecutive weeks on the US Billboard 200 album chart, the fourth longest run in history. Legend holds the distinction of being the second longest-charting album in the history of Billboard magazine. Combining its chart life on the Billboard 200 and the Top Pop Catalogue Albums charts, Legend has had a chart run of 992 non-consecutive weeks, surpassed only by The Dark Side of the Moon at 1574 weeks.

In 2003, the album was ranked #46 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.

This album is a 2022 repress black vinyl housed in a single pocket sleeve, pressed in Europe via Island and Tuff Gong Records.