What was the name of the first band Bob Marley formed as a teenager?

The first band Bob Marley formed as a teenager was The Teenagers. In 1963, Marley joined childhood friend Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh in a young vocal group in Kingston, Jamaica.

The original lineup also included Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith. The group soon changed its name to the Wailing Rudeboys, then the Wailing Wailers, before becoming simply the Wailers.

This sequence causes a common mix-up: The Upsetters were Lee “Scratch” Perry’s studio band, not Marley’s first group. The Wailers’ breakthrough came in 1964 with “Simmer Down,” a Jamaican number-one single recorded for producer Coxsone Dodd.

Marley, Tosh, and Wailer remained the group’s central trio during its formative years, helping establish the vocal harmonies and songwriting partnership that later made Bob Marley and the Wailers internationally famous.