Photo: TimDuncan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · credits
Tier 3 · vertical & regional
Al Anderson
Person · male · United States · New York City · born 1950 · recording since 1973
American guitarist and songwriter
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Also known as Alan Anderson · Alan G. Anderson · Alan Gordon Anderson · Anderson Al · Big Al Anderson · 앨 앤더슨
Timeline
8 events▣ Album 6◦ Birth 1★ Debut release 1
1950s
1970s
· Debut release
Debut release: Al Anderson
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Biography
English biography315 words · 2 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1364512341
Biography
Albert Anderson (born October 11, 1952) is an American-born songwriter and guitarist.
Anderson grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and attended Montclair High School where he learned to play the trombone, eventually picking up guitar and bass guitar. He attended the Berklee College of Music contemporaneously with Pat Metheny and Al Di Meola after working with an early version of the band Aerosmith in the Boston music scene.
He joined The Centurions bringing him to the attention of Chris Wood of Traffic, who invited him to play on the band's next album. Being on the Traffic album never materialized but the interaction led to Anderson becoming employed by Traffic's record label Island Records, leading to him being asked to play lead guitar on Bob Marley & The Wailers' Natty Dread sessions. Anderson played lead guitar on "Crazy Baldhead" and on the Live! album, remaining with the band until 1976 when he joined Word, Sound and Power, backing Peter Tosh on the albums Legalize It and Equal Rights. He returned to Marley's band and played on the live album Babylon By Bus and the studio albums Survival and Uprising. After Marley's death, Anderson continued to tour with The Wailers Band.
He recorded with Ben Harper (Diamonds On the Inside (2003)) and Lauryn Hill on her multi-Grammy winning debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998). He also produced and performed on an album for actor Steven Seagal (Songs from the Crystal Cave (2005)). In 2008, he formed the band The Original Wailers with Junior Marvin.
Tours with Bob Marley & The Wailers
Jun–Jul 1975: Natty Dread Tour (U.S., Canada, England)
May–Aug 1978: Kaya Tour (U.S., Canada, England, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium)
Apr–May 1979: Babylon by Bus Tour (Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii)
Oct–Dec 1979: Survival Tour (U.S., Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, Bahamas)
May–Sep 1980: Uprising Tour (Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, U.S.)
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 9 | 54.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 6 | 79.7th |
| Studio albums | 6 | 86.1th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 8 | 84.1th |
| Recording span (years) | 39 | 79.2th |
| Genres | 2 | 74th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (6 release groups · 6 studio albums)
Albums · 6
1973 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 31:34
A1Be My Woman Tonight2:43A2We'll Make Love3:21A3Ain't No Woman Finer Lookin'3:20A4You're Just Laughin' Inside4:45A5I Don't Believe I'll Stay Here Anymore3:11B1Honky Tonkin'1:55B2Goin' On Back to Indiana2:57B3Don't Hold the Line3:02B4I Just Want to Have You Back Again2:30B5I Haven't Got the Strength to Carry On3:501988 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 9 tracks · 33:33
1Don't Want Your Love3:392I Could Do This All Night5:433I Got Your Number2:374If You Get Your Wish3:335I Still Love You3:096Crazy Like a Fox3:137Nobody Else Will Do4:438You Don't Mean a Thing3:559Love Her and Leave Her3:011996 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 13 tracks · 50:14
1No Place In History3:292Bang Bang Bang4:003It Came From The South3:594Change Is Gonna Do Me Good4:555Get Gone3:456That Thang3:597Under The Hood2:548Listen To Your Heart3:469Lonely Too Long4:0010After The Mardi Gras4:1211Hole In My Heart4:0212Without Your Love3:4513Hiss-On-U3:282006 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 14 tracks · 45:47
1Love Make a Fool of Me4:202It's Only Natural3:013Interlude0:424Better Word for Love3:265Blues About You Baby2:336Do Nothin' Day3:077Trip Around the Sun4:038Right on Time4:189In My Dreams2:2110Movin' Into the Night3:2411What's a Thousand Miles3:5312Let's Get Away for the Weekend3:5013Another Place I Don't Belong2:5914Two Survivors3:502007 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 14 tracks · 51:16
1Something in the Water3:382Poor Me3:293Pawn Shop Guitars4:034Shake That Thing4:065Tell Me Something I Don't Know3:016Just a Thought4:037Drinkin' on the Weekend3:098World Came Tumblin' Down3:079Bigger Wheel4:2210Have It Your Way3:2211Airstream3:4612What Did I Do3:3713Why Do I Feel Like Runnin'3:5614Animals3:372012 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 12 tracks · 46:45
1I Have Loved These Days4:252Strings3:133Satan's Just Waitin'4:354I've Been Lookin' For Ya4:115Heart Of Hearts3:136Further Than I Meant To Go3:537Some Things Never Get Old3:258I Want I Want I Want4:109What's A Thousand Miles4:4210Change Is In The Wind3:0111You Don't Wanna Love A Man Like Me3:1412Hotel Coupe Deville4:43
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Al Anderson head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 9 | 54.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 6 | 79.7th |
| Studio albums | 6 | 86.1th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 8 | 84.1th |
| Recording span (years) | 39 | 79.2th |
| Genres | 2 | 74th |
Awards & honours
Line-up
| Name | From | To | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Wildweeds(band) | — | present | |
| World Famous Headliners(band) | — | present | |
| NRBQ(band) | 1974 | 1993 |
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al_Anderson1978.pngaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/c7f31e82-eaab-4c54-84b6-a2f57f311f3adiscography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/c7f31e82-eaab-4c54-84b6-a2f57f311f3ambid—musicbrainz-search · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/c7f31e82-eaab-4c54-84b6-a2f57f311f3acore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q770702genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q770702seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Anderson_%28musician%29biography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Anderson_%28musician%29
Why this artist is in the database
- List of reggae musicians
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: TimDuncan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q770702 · MusicBrainz: c7f31e82-eaab-4c54-84b6-a2f57f311f3a
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