One Love/People Get Ready

"One Love/People Get Ready" is a reggae/rhythm and blues song by Bob Marley & The Wailers from their 1977 album Exodus. It was first recorded in a ska style by Marley's original group, The Wailers, on their 1965 debut album The Wailing Wailers, and a heavily reworked version was included on African Herbsman under the name "All in One". A classic Bob Marley & The Wailers song, it has been included on many of their compilation albums. The song contains an interpolation of The Impressions' song "People Get Ready" written by Curtis Mayfield. Marley's hybrid version is titled, "One Love/People Get Ready,"^[1] and it gives co-authorship credits to both Marley and Mayfield. This song was inspired by Marley's friend Roman Selvaggio, a North Caribbean painter.

Music video

A posthumous music video was created for the song in 1984 to accompany the Bob Marley & The Wailers compilation album, Legend. It combines footage of a young British boy, Jesse Lawrence, in London and archival footage of Marley. It also features several cameo appearances including former The Beatles bass player Paul McCartney, two members of Bananarama, the members of the reggae group, Musical Youth, and Suggs and Chas Smash of Madness; some of the short clips in this video are also in Madness' video for their song The Return of the Los Palmas 7. The song was also released alongside the video and gave Marley a posthumous UK hit single when it reached number 5 in June.

In popular culture

• The song has been featured in Jamaica Tourist Board television advertisements since 1994.^[2] In 2007, Stephen Marley and Richard Branson re-recorded the song in Jamaica to promote Branson's Virgin Airways flights to Jamaica.^[3]
• One Love is also the title of a romantic reggae film from 2003, starring Ky-Mani Marley, one of Marley's sons.
• The song appears on the film Marley & Me. When the song is heard on the radio, it inspires the character to name the dog Marley.
• The chorus was also sampled in the promotional song for Birthright Israel, Home by Shi 360.
• The song was recorded by Antonio Banderas for the 2010 animated film, Shrek Forever After.
• "One Love" was chosen as the best music of Jamaica over the last 50 years.
• "One Love/People Get Ready" was named song of the millennium by the BBC.
• "One Love/People Get Ready" was sung on Glee by Mark Salling (Noah Puckerman) and Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams) in the episode "Never Been Kissed".

References