Bob Marley’s ‘Buffalo Soldier’ Certified Platinum In The UK

Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Buffalo Soldier was certified platinum in the United Kingdom (UK) on Friday, June 3.  According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the song was issued the Brit Certified Platinum Award after it sold over 600,000 units in the UK, as measured by The Official Charts Company.

Buffalo Solider was posthumously released in 1983 on Confrontation, which was the first album released after the Reggae legend’s untimely death in 1981.

It spent 13 weeks on the UK Singles chart, where it peaked at No. 4.

Written by Bob Marley and Noel “King Sporty” Williams, the protest song describes the black man’s role in building countries that continue to oppress him.  It was inspired by African-American regiments who fought in the Civil War and then later fought against the Native Americans, who historians believe coined the term “Buffalo Solider” due to the black soldiers’ dark, kinky hair.

It has been sampled in a handful of songs, including the Fugees’ Ready or Not (1996).

Buffalo Solider is now one of six songs by Bob Marley & The Wailers to be awarded a platinum certification in the UK.

No Woman, No Cry (1974), Jamming (1977), Is This Love (1978), and Could You Be Loved (1980) are all currently certified platinum, having sold more than 600,000 units each, while Three Little Birds was certified double platinum earlier this year after it sold more than 1,200,000 units in the country.

Bob Marley died in 1981 of cancer at the age of 36.

King Sporty died in 2015 in Miami at age 71.