Songfacts®:

• In this early reggae/rocksteady tune from Bob Marley & The Wailers, Marley reassures his crying lady that he loves her and wants to prove it with a lovemaking session involving guava jelly.
• Written by Marley and Wailers percussionist Bunny Livingston, this was issued as a non-album single, backed by "Redder Then Red," in 1971. The following year, Johnny Nash recorded it for his I Can See Clearly Now album, along with three other Marley tunes (including "Stir It Up"). It was released as the B-side to his single "There Are More Questions Than Answers," which was a Top 10 hit in the UK. In 1973, Nash's version was released again as a single exclusively in Jamaica.
  
  Nash was a Texas-born reggae and pop singer who moved to Jamaica with the intent of popularizing the local rocksteady sound in the US. After meeting Bob Marley & The Wailers at a party, Nash's manager hired Marley to work on the singer's forthcoming album in exchange for a deal with CBS Records and a supporting gig on Nash's UK tour. Although the tour didn't help break the band internationally, it did come with an unexpected benefit for the Wailers. While in London, they met with Chris Blackwell of Island Records, who had licensed some of their earlier releases, to discuss royalties, but they left the meeting with a hefty advance to record a new album, which turned out to be the reggae landmark Catch A Fire.
• Barbra Streisand covered "Guava Jelly" for her 1974 ButterFly album, which found her experimenting with different genres, with this song representing reggae. She also issued it as the album's lead single, but it failed to chart.
• Jamaican singer Owen Grey also recorded this in 1974. His version was used in the 1986 Robin Williams movie Club Paradise.
• Johnny Nash's version was used in the first episode of the 2010 miniseries This Is England '86.
• The Wailers included this on a couple of their compilation releases, including the 1992 boxset Songs Of Freedom.