World of Jamaican Music

Discover artists and hear songs from everyone on the site! Log in to Spotify in this browser to hear full songs. SourcesYour Voice

An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

The I-Threes

Band. Reggae

Active
1974-1981

The I-Threes were the harmony trio of Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt, formed in 1974 to sing behind Bob Marley and the Wailers after Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left the group. Rather than replace the men's "cool and characteristically Jamaican male harmonies," the Rough Guide says, Marley brought in "the more gospel-inflected backup vocals of the I-Threes," a sound more familiar to rock audiences, and calls the three "superb harmonizers." The name plays on the Rastafarian formula "I and I"; in later years the three dropped the plural and recorded as I Three.

All three had careers of their own first. Rita Marley, born Alpharita Anderson, had been recording since 1964 as lead voice of the Soulettes at Studio One, where Coxsone Dodd assigned Bob Marley to work with the group; she also cut duets with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh and sang behind the Wailers on 1960s sessions. Marcia Griffiths had recorded at Studio One and as half of Bob and Marcia with Bob Andy, and was entering her association with Sonia Pottinger. Judy Mowatt led the Gaylettes, formed in 1967 with Beryl Lawrence and Merle Clemonson, who cut for Merritone during the rocksteady years; she also wrote material for Bunny Wailer. The three came together when Rita and Judy sang harmony on a Griffiths session.

Their first work with the band was Natty Dread (1974), the first album issued under the name Bob Marley and the Wailers, and the singles "Belly Full" and "Knotty Dread" were credited to the trio alongside the band. They stayed with Marley on record and on tour until his sunset in 1981. In December 1976 their manager, Norman St. John Hamilton, fearing trouble at the Smile Jamaica concert, booked Griffiths for shows in New York that did not exist, so she was out of Jamaica when gunmen attacked the band's rehearsal at 56 Hope Road; Rita Marley was wounded there. None of them gave up solo work in the meantime: Mowatt's Black Woman (1978), which she produced herself with Freddie McGregor, and Griffiths's "At Studio One" both appeared while the group was at its height, and as a trio they also sang on records by Peter Tosh, Big Youth, and Bob Andy.

They recorded twice under their own name: Beginning, released in 1986 on Tuff Gong through EMI America, and Songs of Bob Marley, which followed nine years later.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says that after Tosh and Bunny Wailer left, Island brought in "the more gospel-inflected backup vocals of the I-Threes" in place of the male harmonies, and gives the members as Rita Marley (b. Alpharita Anderson, Kingston), Marcia Griffiths (b. 1954, Kingston), and Judy Mowatt (b. 1952, Kingston). Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 138.
  2. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 138-39.
  3. Wikipedia describes the name as "a spin on the Rastafarian 'I and I' concept." "Bob Marley and the Wailers," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley_and_the_Wailers.
  4. The Rough Guide mentions "Rita's group the Soulettes," her Studio One duet "Bless You" with Bunny Wailer, and her part in Tosh's "Rasta Shook Them Up." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 39, 79.
  5. The Rough Guide notes Griffiths's duet with Bob Marley at Studio One, her duets with Bob Andy, and Pottinger's work with Griffiths and Mowatt in the 1970s. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 39, 78, 105, 107.
  6. Mowatt told the Gleaner in 2026 that Federal Records was the first studio where she "went behind a microphone," as a member of the Gaylettes. "Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt Hail New Era at Tuff Gong," Jamaica Gleaner, March 8, 2026, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20260308/marcia-griffiths-judy-mowatt-hail-new-era-tuff-gong.
  7. The Rough Guide says "the I-Threes took the place of Bunny and Peter's harmonies on Natty Dread" in 1974, "what can be termed the first Bob Marley solo album." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 139. Wikipedia notes that I-Threes backing vocals were also added to the posthumous Confrontation (1983). "Bob Marley and the Wailers."
  8. Hamilton, "the manager in 1976 of the I Three and solo star Marcia Griffiths," recalls: "I explained to her there was no show arranged and I wanted her out of Jamaica because I was afraid for her safety." Judy Mowatt recalls that "Rita and myself had been going to rehearsals," and Tyrone Downie that after the attack Rita Marley "had a bullet in her head": Roger Steffens, "The Night Bob Marley Got Shot," Rolling Stone (Australia), July 10, 2017, https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-night-bob-marley-got-shot-1877, an excerpt from Roger Steffens, So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (New York: W. W. Norton, 2017).
  9. The Rough Guide says the single "Black Woman" came out in 1977 on the Tuff Gong-distributed Ashandan label and the album of the same name in 1978, and that Griffiths and Mowatt both "made great records under her own name" while singing with Marley. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 200, 202.
  10. Discogs lists a Big Youth single credited to "Big Youth & The I Threes." "I Threes," Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/386335-I-Threes.
  11. Discogs dates Beginning to 1986 (EMI America and Tuff Gong) and Songs of Bob Marley to 1995, and also lists an earlier I Threes album, Music for the World (Shanachie, 1983). "I Threes," Discogs.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map