Bob Marley is easily the most successful reggae musician of all time, but his reach extends beyond just those who identify as lovers of the genre. The singer-songwriter ranks as one of the bestselling artists in American history, and one of his releases is still performing incredibly well, even decades after his death.
Legend, the greatest hits compilation by Bob Marley and the Wailers, hits a very special milestone on the Billboard 200 this frame. The chart ranks the most-consumed albums in the U.S. based on a methodology that combines sales and streaming activity.
Bob Marley and the Wailers sit at No. 106 on this week’s Billboard 200 with Legend, but it’s not the position that matters. The CD has now lived on the ranking for 800 weeks exactly, which is an incredibly rare achievement for any album.
In fact, Legend is just the second album in history to make it to 800 weeks on the Billboard 200. Bob Marley and the Wailers follow in the incredibly successful footsteps of Pink Floyd, who became the first to reach that mark some time ago. The rock band’s The Dark Side of the Moon album is fast approaching 1,000 weeks on the tally, though it hasn’t been present in some time, so there’s no saying when, or if, it will hit that milestone.
Legend was released in 1984, several years after Marley’s passing in 1981. It collects many of the singer’s biggest hits and several other recordings, and it has gone on to become one of the bestselling albums in U.S. history. A little less than a decade ago, it was certified 15-times platinum by the RIAA for shifting at least 15 million copies in America alone, and that number has surgely grown considerably since. It ranks as the bestselling reggae release ever, and clearly it is still being consumed by fans across the country to this day.
