When I taught elementary general music, one of the songs in our series was Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, and it was often requested by my students. Here is Ziggy singing his dad’s song.

David Nesta “Ziggy” Marley (born 17 October 1968) is a Jamaican musician and leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, and the son of reggae icons Bob Marley and Rita Marley.

In 1979, Ziggy and his siblings Sharon, Cedella and Stephen formed the Melody Makers – named after the British weekly pop/rock music newspaper, Melody Maker – and made their recording debut with “Children Playing in the Streets”. The track was written for them by their father, who had composed the song for them four years earlier and wanted to share this gift with children around the world. All royalties from the single were pledged to the United Nations, to aid its efforts during the International Year of the Child.

In 1984, Ziggy Marley got back into the studio with his siblings and English producer Steve Levine for what became the single, “Lying in Bed.” The following year, they released their debut LP, Play the Game Right. The album was produced by their mother, Rita Marley, and featured Aston and Carlton Barrett, who were originally the rhythm section for Bob Marley’s Wailers, on bass and drums, respectively.

Skipping forward to 1995, the group signed a record deal with Elektra and released “Free Like We Want 2 B” accompanied by the group’s own recording label “Ghetto Youths United”. The album charted at #170 on the Billboard 200 chart and #3 on the Top Reggae Albums chart. The single “Power to Move Ya” charted #13 on the Dance Music/Club Play Singles.

In 1996 Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers released a song called “Love Power” for the Jim Henson soundtrack movie Muppet Treasure Island with the composers Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil. He also performed the song “Hey What a Wonderful Kind of Day” which was later released as the theme song to the Arthur TV Show on PBS.

Here’s a more recent version of “Hey What a Wonderful Kind of Day” with friends Jon Baptiste and Chance the Rapper:

In early 1997, the group performed at the tribute concert “Marley Magic Live” in Central Park, New York on the Summerstage. They also released their second best-of album “The Best of (1988-1993)”. Later that year, the group released their ninth album “Fallen Is Babylon“. In 1998, the second single “Everyone Wants to Be” charted at #16 on the Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. The album earned the group their third Grammy award.

The YouTube video below of “Everyone Wants to Be” has an annoying crackle. Another YouTube video was redubbed directly from the album, without the crackle, but after a while it doesn’t sync correctly. I’d say watch this one until the crackle starts.

In 1999, the group released their tenth studio album, “The Spirit of Music”. The album peaked at #1 on the Top Reggae Albums chart. The album spawned the singles “Higher Vibration”, “Jah Will Be Done”, and “One Good Spliff”.

Ziggy Marley’s debut solo album, Dragonfly was released on 15 April 2003. The album featured the single “True To Myself.”

Something more recent, Rebellion Rises, which came out in 2018:

Much of the text of this article was excerpted from Wikipedia.

Photograph of Ziggy Marley by John Mathew Smith, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.