Editing Catch a Fire (section)

{{Short description|1973 studio album by Bob Marley & The Wailers}}
{{other uses}}
{{good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Catch a Fire
| type       = studio
| artist     = [[Bob Marley and the Wailers]]
| cover      = BobMarleyCatchAFire.jpg
| alt        =
| caption    = The original 1973 'Zippo lighter' hinged album sleeve
| released   = 13 April 1973
| recorded   = May–October 1972
| studio     = {{hlist|Dynamic Sound (Kingston)|[[Harry J]]'s (Kingston)|Randy's (Kingston)|[[Island Studios|Island]] (London)}}
| genre      = 
* [[Reggae]]<ref name="Allmusic"/>
* [[reggae rock]]<ref name= "EW Staff 2019">{{cite magazine|last= EW Staff |title= Top 100 Albums |magazine= [[Entertainment Weekly]] |date= September 27, 2012|url= https://ew.com/gallery/top-100-albums/?slide=384754#384754|accessdate= May 5, 2023}}</ref>
* [[roots reggae]]<ref name= "Stanley 2013">{{cite book|first=Bob |last=Stanley|title=Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop|chapter= State of Independence: Jamaica|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9emZAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT7|date=13 September 2013|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-28198-5|page=321}}</ref>
| length     = 35:56
| label      = [[Tuff Gong]], [[Island Records|Island]]
| producer   = [[Bob Marley]], [[Chris Blackwell]]
| prev_title = [[The Best of the Wailers]]
| prev_year  = 1971
| next_title = [[African Herbsman]]
| next_year  = 1973
| misc       = {{Extra album cover
 | header  = Alternative 'spliff' cover
 | type    = studio
 | cover   = Thewailerscatchafire.jpg
 | border  =
 | alt     =
 | caption = The sleeve art from the 1974 issue of the album
}}
}}

'''''Catch a Fire''''' is the fifth studio album by the [[reggae]] band [[Bob Marley and the Wailers|The Wailers]] (aka Bob Marley and the Wailers), released in April 1973. It was their first album released by [[Island Records]].<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=felkD8CI97sC&pg=PA49 |title=Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music|page=49 |author=Kevin O'Brien Chang, Wayne Chen |publisher=[[Temple University Press]]|year= 1998 |access-date=17 May 2012 |isbn= 9781566396295}}</ref> After finishing a [[United Kingdom|UK]] tour with [[Johnny Nash]], they had started laying down tracks for [[JAD Records]] when a disputed [[CBS Records International|CBS]] contract with Danny Sims created tensions. The band did not have enough money to return to Jamaica, so their road manager Brent Clarke approached producer [[Chris Blackwell]], who agreed to advance The Wailers money for an album. They instead used this money to pay their fares back home, where they completed the recordings that constitute ''Catch a Fire''. The album has nine songs, two of which were written and composed by [[Peter Tosh]]; the remaining seven were by [[Bob Marley]]. While [[Bunny Livingston|Bunny Wailer]] is not credited as a writer, the group's writing style was a collective process. For the immediate follow-up album, ''[[Burnin' (Bob Marley and the Wailers album)|Burnin']]'', also released in 1973, he contributed four songs. After Marley returned with the tapes to London, Blackwell reworked the tracks at [[Island Studios]], with contributions by [[Muscle Shoals Sound Studio|Muscle Shoals]] session musician [[Wayne Perkins]], who played guitar on three [[overdub|overdubbed]] tracks. The album had a limited original release under the name The Wailers in a sleeve depicting a [[Zippo]] lighter, designed by graphic artists [[Rod Dyer]] and Bob Weiner; subsequent releases had an alternative cover designed by John Bonis, featuring an [[Esther Anderson (Jamaican actress)|Esther Anderson]] portrait of Marley smoking a "[[joint (cannabis)|spliff]]", and crediting the band as Bob Marley and the Wailers.

The Catch a Fire Tour, which covered [[England]] and the [[United States]], helped generate international interest in the band. ''Catch a Fire'' peaked at number 171 on the [[Billboard 200]] and number 51 on the [[Billboard charts|''Billboard'' Black Albums]] charts. Critical acclaim has included the album being listed at number 126 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]'s'' [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|500 Greatest Albums of All Time]], second only to ''[[Legend (Bob Marley & The Wailers album)|Legend]]'' among five Bob Marley albums on the list. It is regarded as one of the top reggae albums of all time.

The group title Bob Marley and the Wailers being used on Bob Marley solo albums has created a lot of marketing and identity confusion for The Wailers' catalog. This follows the confusion generated by their company Tuff Gong Records (registered in 1973) and the similarly-named Tuff Gong International (registered by the Bob Marley Estate in 1991); this resulted in the 1999 Tuff Gong Settlement Agreement, which sought to separate the group's catalog from Bob Marley's solo catalog. The dual releases of ''Catch a Fire'' under both group names is where this marketing confusion began.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}