Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Fifteen years after it was released by Island Records, Legend, the posthumous compilation by reggae king Bob Marley, is still one of the best-selling albums on Billboard magazine's catalogue chart. According to a report in the USA Today newspaper, it shows no sign of slowing down.

Legend is only the 17th album on the catalogue chart to pass sales of 10 million units. 'USA Today' reporter Edna Gundersen says this year alone it has sold over 200,000 units, more than new albums by hot dancehall acts Mavado, Buju Banton and Jah Cure combined.

Paul Grein, author of Billboard's Chart Watch column, says this is quite a feat considering sales of most catalogue albums have peaked.

"It's gathering steam. A lot of the other 10-million-sellers have run out of gas and haven't been adding to their totals. This is the first to hit 10 million since Norah Jones' Come Away With Me in February 2007," Grein told USA Today. "I imagine Legend will eventually be number one on this list, especially since new million-sellers aren't coming along."

Legend, which contains the classics No Woman, No Cry, Jamming, Exodus and Redemption Song, was released in 1984, three years after Marley's death from cancer at age 36. It entered the catalogue chart at number 168.

Sales tracker SoundScan reports that Legend has consistently sold over 250,000 annually since it was released. It has topped the catalogue chart 110 times, twice as often as any other title.

Unlike other albums in the 10-million club, like British band Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, none of the songs on Legend made the Billboard singles chart. Dark Side of The Moon, released in 1973, has been on the catalogue list longest, clocking over 1,500 weeks.

Message songs

Marley was the first reggae act to embrace the album concept first developed during the 1960s by rock artistes like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Cream who side-stepped the hit singles market.

Even though his message songs were never suited for commercial radio in the United States, albums like Catch A Fire, Rastaman Vibration and Exodus were strong underground sellers in that country and made Marley a superstar in liberal Europe.

A deluxe edition of Legend, with two additional tracks and alternate versions of its original tracks, was reissued by the Universal Music Group in 2002.