There are at least two groups with this name:
(1)The Wailers were an American rock band from Tacoma, Washington, often considered the first garage rock group. Five 45s (four released in 1959 and one in 1960) and an LP release, The Fabulous Wailers (released December 1959 on Golden Crest Records) put the Wailers on the national scene. Their 1961 cover of "Louie Louie" inspired other groups from the Seattle area, most notably the Kingsmen of Portland, Oregon, to record the same song, and the band's influence established the area as a center for musical innovation and the home of a long string of regional favorites playing a kind of raunchy, amateur, yet passionate, form of rock and roll.
(2)In the mid-60s, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston (also known as Bunny Wailer), Winston McIntosh (aka Peter Tosh), Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith shortened their previous moniker, The Wailing Rudeboys, to The Wailers. Up until 1974, recordings were credited to The Wailers, after which Livingston and Tosh left to pursue solo careers and Marley formed a new backing band, recording as Bob Marley & The Wailers. After Marley’s death in 1981, his band continued to tour and record as The Wailers or The Wailers Band.
