Bob Marley’s 25 greatest songs, ranked

Bob Marley’s life finally hits the big screen this week in the form of Bob Marley: One Love. In his 36 years, Marley lived a life so rich and tumultuous, not all of it can be distilled into a biopic. Similarly, he produced more great music than could be contained on Legend, the posthumous 1984 compilation that helped cement his image as a Rastafarian mystic and reggae outlaw.

One of the best greatest hits albums ever assembled, Legend painted a vivid, colorful portrait but it wasn’t complete: it deliberately favored his lighter later material, leaving the tougher work of the Wailers to languish on LPs and CDs. Those early records, when the Wailers featured Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, are crucial to understanding the impact and legacy of Marley. They’re featured here, along with selections from Legend, on a list of 25 essentials that tell Bob Marley’s story as thoroughly as One Love itself.

3. “I Shot The Sheriff” (1973)

Released just a year after the original version, Eric Clapton’s cover of “I Shot The Sheriff” ushered Bob Marley & the Wailers into the rock world and, along with it, the public at large. As popular as Clapton’s version was—and it did reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart—it couldn’t supplant the original, not when it so clearly crystalized the outlaw mythos lying at the heart of Marley in the early 1970s thanks to the Wailers’ languid, funky rhythms; they sounded like they didn’t care they were breaking the law.