Who is credited as the songwriter of Bob Marley's 'No Woman, No Cry'?

Vincent Ford is credited as the songwriter of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry.”

Ford, nicknamed “Tata,” was a Jamaican songwriter and a friend of Marley’s from Trench Town in Kingston. The song appeared on the 1974 album Natty Dread, while the better-known live recording came from the 1975 album Live!, recorded at London’s Lyceum Theatre. That live version helped turn the song into one of Marley’s signature international hits.

Ford ran a soup kitchen in Trench Town, and the songwriting royalties provided important financial support for that work. He was also credited on other Marley-associated songs, including “Crazy Baldhead,” “Positive Vibration” and “Roots, Rock, Reggae.”

The wording “credited as songwriter” matters. Some accounts and later disputes have argued that Marley wrote the song, or that it emerged collaboratively, with Ford receiving the official credit to help him financially and avoid contractual complications. Nevertheless, the canonical songwriting credit is Vincent Ford.