At the time of his death, in May 1981, Bob Marley was 36 years old, reggae's biggest star, and the father of at least eleven children. He was not, however, a big seller. For Dave Robinson, this presented a tremendous opportunity. Two years after Marley's passing, Chris Blackwell, the founder of Marley's label, Island Records, brought Robinson in to run his U.K. operation. Robinson's first assignment was to put out a compilation of Bob Marley's hits. He took one look at the artist's sales figures and was shocked. Marley's best-selling album, 1977's Exodus, had only moved about 650,000 units in the U.S. and fewer than 200,000 in the...
Read the entire article in The Village Voice: http://bit.ly/1qBlHlH
Watch Bob Marley perform Exodus and Redemption Song in Germany in 1980 via YouTube: