I shot the sheriff
| I shot the sheriff | |
|---|---|
| Bob Marley and The Wailers | |
| publication | 1973 |
| length | 4:41 |
| Genre (s) | reggae |
| Author (s) | Bob Marley |
| Award (s) | RS 500 place 443 |
| album | Burnin ' |
| Cover versions | |
| 1974 | Eric Clapton |
| 1997 | Warren G |
I Shot the Sheriff ( English I shot the Sheriff ) is a song by the Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley and his band The Wailers , which was released in 1973 on the studio album Burnin ' . I Shot the Sheriff was the last single Marley released with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer before they left the band to pursue their own solo careers.
Background of the version by Bob Marley and The Wailers
The title of the song was supposed to be I Shot the Police , but the band feared they would run into problems with the government. So instead they chose the more harmless I Shot the Sheriff . The lyrics portray the point of view of a narrator who admits he killed the corrupt local sheriff and claims to be falsely charged with killing the deputy sheriff. The narrator also claims to have acted in self-defense when the sheriff tried to shoot him. The key of the studio version is G minor . The song was played in F sharp minor at concerts, including on the live album Live! (1975). I Shot the Sheriff was last played by Marley on September 20, 1980 at Madison Square Garden , New York .
Well-known cover versions are available from Warren G , Screamin 'Jay Hawkins and UB40 . The best known is from Eric Clapton . The music magazine Rolling Stone listed the song in November 2004 in its list of the 500 best songs of all time at number 443.
Eric Clapton's cover version
The cover version by Eric Clapton reached number one in the US charts in 1974 and was number 4 in Germany, which also gave Marley a boost in popularity. Music critics found that Clapton's rendition features funky guitar playing, which is what made the song so popular. His version is the most successful of the title to date and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.
| Country / Association | Award | Sales | source |
 Japan ( RIAJ )
|
gold | 51,000+ | |
 United States ( RIAA )
|
gold | 1,000,000+ |
Individual evidence
- ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: Rolling Stone ( Memento June 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved November 20, 2010.
- ↑ officialcharts.de. Retrieved March 7, 2015 .
- ^ Eric Clapton "Discovering Eric Clapton" 2013 Documentary on YouTube
- ^ Grammy Hall of Fame Award. Retrieved March 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Japanese Charts-The Archives , ukmix.org
- ^ RIAA - Gold & Platinum Searchable Database , riaa.com