According to the Top of the Pops 1976 compilation CD notes, this was the first charting 12” single in the UK. However, it would appear that it was actually The Who’s ‘Substitute’ reissue, two months earlier, which charted first. Boney M were perhaps first to chart with new material on a 12” single.
First 12" single i purchased, I asked for the single and from under the counter they pulled out a large black cover, for a minute i thought i was buying an LP!
"In 1972, Bob Marley and the Wailers were signed by Chris Blackwell to Island Records, but Marley was concerned about a previous songwriting contract he had signed with the producer Danny Sims at Cayman Music. He did not want his new songs to be associated with Cayman and so, in all probability, he put them in the names of his wife, Rita, the Wailers or other close friends to find a way around tight publishing restrictions. This spreading out of writing credits would also have allowed Marley to provide lasting help to family and close friends.
"No Woman, No Cry", according to Marley, was written at Ford's flat in 1974, as the pair reminisced about the past and about playing in "the government yard in Trenchtown".
There is no proof that Vincent Ford did not write "No Woman, No Cry" and the other songs, but the circumstantial evidence would suggest that he didn't. There are very few other Marley songs attributed to him, although ones that are include "Inna De Red" and "Jah Bless", with Marley's son, Stephen. Ford himself never denied his authorship of Marley's songs."