No Woman, No Cry
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"No Woman, No Cry" is a reggae song made famous by Bob Marley & The Wailers. The song first became world-famous in 1974 through the studio album Natty Dread. The live version from the 1975 album Live! is perhaps best known — it was this version which was released on the greatest hits compilation Legend. Though Bob Marley may have written the song, or may have written the melody, songwriter credits were given to "V. Ford". Vincent Ford was a friend of Marley's who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica where Marley grew up. The royalty cheques received by Ford ensured the survival and continual running of his soup kitchen.
The song has since been covered by such artists as Wyclef Jean, Londonbeat, Murder One, Blues Traveler, O.A.R., Devon Allmans Honeytribe, Joan Baez, Xavier Rudd, Jimmy Buffett, Jonathan Butler, Gilberto Gil (Daniela Mercury recorded this version at Balé Mulato - Ao Vivo), The Fugees, No Use for a Name, Hikaru Utada, String Cheese Incident, NOFX (live, with El Hefe playing and singing alone), Tila Tequila, Boney M, Rancid, Pearl Jam, Andrés Calamaro, Hugh Masekela, Hedley, Jimmy Cliff, Pauline Black, Peter Rowan, Bill Bourne, Graham Parker, Keller Williams, Eterna Inocencia, as a duet by Faith Hill with Tim McGraw , Sean Kingston, and the Arabic singer Ali Bahar. The "G-punk" band Hed PE as of the year 2002, began covering the song at many of their live shows. The ska punk band [spunge] is the only band to ever have officially been given permission by the Marley family to change the lyrics, for their cover on the album Room For Abuse. The pop rap band Sweetbox used a part of the song for the chorus of their song "Everything's Gonna Be Alright". Naughty by Nature sampled Boney M's version of the song for their hit single "Everything's Gonna Be Alright."
"No Woman, No Cry" (as recorded by Marley & the Wailers) was No. 37 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
