One Love (3:36)

One Love 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. It has also been included on many of their compilation albums, making it an influential classic. 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 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.

A posthumous music video was created for the song in 1984 to accompany the Bob Marley “Legend” compilation album. It combines footage of a young British boy, Jesse Lawrence, in London and archival footage of Marley. It also features several cameo appearances including Paul McCartney of The Beatles, two members of Bananarama, 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. The song was also released alongside the video and gave Marley a posthumous UK hit single when it reached number 5 in June.