No Woman, No Cry

That song is one of the most famous Bob Marley And The Wailers songs ever, which appears on every 'Best of' collection I've seen, both when on CD and when on vinyl.

What's strange about this song, however, is that there appears to be only one version of that song (at least I've never heard of a different version), which is a recording of a live performance. This wouldn't be strange, except that the audience at the time exhibits behaviour that one does not generally associate with people who have never heard a song before (cheering upon hearing the first notes, singing along, etc). There are a few possibilities that would explain this:

1. The song 'No Woman, No Cry' is not originally by Bob Marley, but was a well-known song by someone else at the time, of which they made their own version that they performed at this concert, and never on another occasion (in other words: this is the only recording that ever existed). While it would not entirely explain the audience's reaction, this would make sense.
2. The original studio version that they made was nice, but The Wailers changed it sufficiently on that concert, and this version was deemed much better; as a result, people keep putting the live version on Best Of collections, and collectively forget about the original studio version.
3. Something happened to the original studio version, and nobody has it anymore. The live version isn't the only version ever, but it is the only version that still exists today. I would find that unlikely, but it's of course not impossible.
4. I'm simply not enough of a Bob Marley fan, and need to look harder. That, of course, is quite likely as all I know about Bob Marley is the few CDs I've seen in CD record shops and the one CD I bought while on a trip to .au.

And the odd documentary I've seen about him, of course.

Mysteries are fun, sometimes...