Jamaica's Bob Marley and The Wailers issued their first album "The Wailing Wailers" in 1964. "Stir It Up" is on the 1973 album "Catch a Fire". It's said that he wrote the tune for his wife Rita.

Discovered by Arthur Godfrey in the fifties, Johnny Nash enjoyed success in that decade when he teamed with Paul Anka and George Hamilton IV for "The Teen Commandments". Johnny started his label JAD and using members of The Wailers covered "Stir It Up" in 1972 and this was when many outside Jamaica discovered the music of Marley. The song hit the top twenty.