“Could You Be Loved,” released as the first single from Bob Marley & The Wailers’ 12th studio album Uprising in 1980, has surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify as of September 19, 2024. This milestone marks Marley’s second song to cross the billion-stream threshold, following “Three Little Birds,” which reached the milestone in July. Bob Marley & The Wailers are now the first reggae act with two solo songs surpassing 1 billion streams on Spotify.
“Could You Be Loved,” which garners 600,000 streams daily worldwide, was written by Bob Marley during a flight while The Wailers experimented with a guitar riff.
The song’s release came just four months before Bob Marley’s historic performance at Madison Square Garden (MSG) on September 19, 1980. Industry insider Copeland Forbes, who worked with Jamaican legends like Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh, vividly recalls this period and the impact of “Could You Be Loved,” a track that elevated Marley’s career in the U.S.
“Yes, I was around, but I was on the road with Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh when the song was recorded up at 56 Hope Road, where the Tuff Gong studio was before relocating to Marcus Garvey Drive,” Forbes recalls. This period was pivotal for Marley, especially after the mixed reception of the 1979 Survival album in the U.S.
Despite performing multiple shows at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre in 1979, Survival was deemed “too heavy” for American audiences, Forbes notes. This contrasted with Exodus, which was seen as more suitable for the U.S. market. Exodus also faced setbacks due to Marley’s health issues from an injured toe, which led to his eventual battle with cancer.
By 1980, as Marley sought to break into the U.S. market, his new manager made a strategic deal. Forbes explains: “Bob wanted to break in the U.S. in 1980 when he broke all attendance records in Europe that year, drawing over 110,000 fans at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy. When he came into the U.S., his new manager, Danny Sims, struck a deal with Frankie Crocker of WBLS FM radio in NY to give Bob one month of continuous airplay of the single ‘Could You Be Loved.’ Bob would open for the Commodores at MSG on Sept 19 & 20, 1980, for a small stipend to cover the band’s expenses, with no funds going into Bob’s pocket.”