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The Wailers
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The Wailers

1963–1974

Bob Marley and the Wailers (previously known as the Wailers and prior to that the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers and the Teenagers) were a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae band. The founding members, in 1963, were Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley), Peter Tosh (Winston Hubert McIntosh), and Bunny Wailer (Neville Livingston).

During 1970 and 1971, Marley, Tosh and Wailer worked with producers Leslie Kong and Lee "Scratch" Perry, recording The Best of the Wailers with Kong and Soul Rebels and Soul Revolution Part II with Perry and the Upsetters.

Before signing to Island Records in 1972, the band released four albums. Two additional albums were produced before Tosh and Wailer departed from the band in 1974, citing dissatisfaction with their treatment by the label and ideological disagreements. Marley continued with a new lineup, which included the I-Threes, and went on to release seven more albums. Marley died from cancer in 1981, at which point the group disbanded.

The Wailers were a groundbreaking ska and reggae group, noted for songs such as "Simmer Down", "Trenchtown Rock", "Nice Time", "War", "Stir It Up", "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff".

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From the archive

Career timeline

Stories about The Wailers from the JamaicansMusic archive, oldest first · 1963–2024

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  1. 1963

    Music

    Winston McIntosh Becomes Peter Tosh: The Wailers Take Shape in Trench Town, 1963

    Raised by an aunt in Westmoreland and drawn to Kingston’s sound-system culture, Winston Hubert McIntosh joins Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston under Joe Higgs’s mango tree. By 1963 the Teenagers are the Wailers — a trio whose harmonies, militant lyrics and Studio One sides will reshape Jamaican music.

  2. 1964

    Music

    ‘Simmer Down’: Five Trench Town Teenagers Walk Into Studio One and Leave as The Wailers

    Coached by Joe Higgs under a mango tree on Second Street, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite and Beverley Kelso record ‘Simmer Down’ for Coxsone Dodd with the Skatalites behind them. By February 1964 it is No. 1 in Jamaica — a warning to the rude boys, sung by a boy from the government yard.

  3. 1973

    Music

    ‘Catch a Fire’: Stranded in London, The Wailers Take Chris Blackwell’s Advance, Go Home to Kingston and Make the Album That Takes Reggae to the World

    Released by Island Records on April 13, 1973 in a hand-riveted Zippo lighter sleeve, ‘Catch a Fire’ is the first reggae album marketed like a rock record. Cut on eight-track at Dynamic, Harry J’s and Randy’s, then overdubbed at Basing Street by Wayne Perkins and John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick, it sells 14,000 copies in its first weeks — and sets Bob Marley on the road out of Trench Town.

  4. 1974

    Music

    Tosh and Bunny Walk: The Wailers Split and Peter Tosh Goes Solo, 1974

    After Lee Perry’s ‘Catch a Fire’ sides and the Island Records deal that reshaped the group around Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer quit the Wailers in 1974. Tosh keeps the militant fire — cutting for Perry, opening his own label and preparing the solo statement that becomes ‘Legalize It.’

  5. 1987

    Music

    Stepping Razor Silenced: Peter Tosh Murdered in Kingston Home Invasion, 11 September 1987

    Peter Tosh was shot and killed during a robbery at his home in Kingston on Friday, 11 September 1987. The reggae pioneer was 42. UPI and the Washington Post reported the killing; Jamaica lost its most militant voice and reggae lost a founding member of the Wailers.

  6. 2013

    Music

    Bob Marley and the Wailers' 'Legend Remixed' full album stream

    Being released June 25th on Tuff Gong/UMe, 'Legend: Remixed' features reworkings of 15 of the album's original 16 cuts, all of which you can now check out in this album stream.

  7. 2022

    Music

    Tyrone Downie, the Wailers Keyboardist Behind ‘Three Little Birds’ and ‘Exodus,’ Dies at 66

    The Kingston College prodigy who played on ‘Cherry Oh Baby’ as a schoolboy, joined Bob Marley and the Wailers before he was 20 and later became musical director for Youssou N’Dour died on the night of Saturday, November 5, 2022, after being taken to hospital in Kingston. The Wailers announced the death; no cause was given.

  8. 2024

    Music

    Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, Bassist and Backbone of the Wailers, Dies at 77

    The Kingston-born bassist whose lines anchor ‘Stir It Up,’ ‘No Woman, No Cry,’ ‘Jamming’ and ‘Could You Be Loved’ died on February 3, 2024 after what his family called a long medical battle. From the Upsetters to four decades leading the Wailers, Family Man defined how reggae bass is played.

17 more stories about The Wailers in the archive →

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