Artist · chart history
Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers
Band United States Active 1986–2000 Jamaican reggae family group
Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers formed in 1986 in the United States and was active until 2000. Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers has 57 chart appearances on 32 radio countdowns from 7 stations on RockLists, spanning 1988–2023. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Tomorrow People”, which appears on 28 lists with a best position of #23. The station that charted Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 27 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1988.
Being Bob Marley's kids is a heavy crown to wear, and Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers wore it with grace. The children of Bob and Rita Marley, with Ziggy singing lead and Sharon, Cedella and Stephen Marley alongside him, started singing together as the Melody Makers before they were even teenagers, and by the late '80s they had grown into a reggae band with its own voice, backed by heavyweights like Aston "Family Man" Barrett on bass and horn men Dean Fraser and Glen da Costa on saxophones, Calvin Cameron on trombone and David Madden on trumpet.
Conscious Party, in 1988, was the breakthrough, a bright, bubbling reggae record with a pop sheen that carried them into the mainstream. "Tomorrow People" became their signature hit, and "Tumblin' Down" and "Lee And Molly" kept the party going. One Bright Day followed in 1989 with songs about optimism and self-empowerment, among them "Look Who's Dancing" and "Who Will Be There".
Jahmekya in 1991 and Joy and Blues in 1993 kept the family on the road, and they even sang the theme song for the kids' cartoon Arthur.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tomorrow People | 28 | #23 | – | 1988 | |
| 2 | Brothers And Sisters | 14 | #83 | – | 1993 | |
| 3 | Look Who's Dancing | 4 | #41 | – | 1989 | |
| 4 | Lee And Molly | 2 | #409 | – | – | |
| 5 | Who Will Be There | 3 | #89 | – | 1989 | |
| 6 | Tumblin' Down | 4 | #91 | – | 1988 | |
| 7 | Kozmik | 2 | #1915 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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