8. Jerry Garcia Band/Grateful Dead, “Stir It Up”
Most people only connect Bob Marley and Jerry Garcia when it comes to their legendary marijuana use, and iconic status among hippies. But while he hasn’t ever really been credited for it, Jerry Garcia (in both his Jerry Garcia Band and The Grateful Dead) helped popularize reggae in the US as the bands covered not only Bob but Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh as far back as the early 70’s, even before UK’s Eric Clapton dropped “I Shot The Sheriff.” Grateful Dead live recordings being an entire industry unto themselves, these excursions are well documented, like this version of “Stir It Up” (by the full Dead) from Hampton, Virginia, in March of ’88:
And just for fun, here’s another version of “Stir It Up,” this time by Dread Zeppelin, the band known for performing the songs of Led Zeppelin in a reggae style as sung by a 300-pound Vegas Elvis impersonator. Seriously.