“Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley

"Three Little Birds" sits fourth on side two of Exodus, Bob Marley and the Wailers' 1977 album, a gentle bit of reggae reassurance that didn't go out as a single until 1980, when it climbed to 17 in the UK. It followed "Could You Be Loved" on Tuff Gong.

Marley wrote the words, and nobody has ever quite settled who or what the birds are. One story points to birds Marley loved that would perch near his house; a friend from those days remembered pretty canaries landing on the windowsill at Hope Road. The I Threes, the three women who sang with him on his shows, say the song is about them.

Whoever inspired it, it grew into one of Marley's most popular songs, and plenty of other artists have taken a turn at it since. The chorus is so sticky that people often call the song by its hook instead of its title, which is about as good a measure of a pop song as there is.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.