Writing and recording

In October 1990, U2 arrived in Berlin on the eve of German reunification to start the recording classes for Achtung Child at Hansa Studios.^[1] Anticipating to be impressed by a “New Europe” and the reuniting metropolis, the band as an alternative discovered the temper to be bleak and shortly battle arose over their musical route and the standard of their materials. Whereas bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. most well-liked a sound much like U2’s earlier work, vocalist Bono and guitarist the Edge had been impressed by European industrial and digital dance music of the time and had been advocating a change.^[1] The band additionally had issue creating demos and musical concepts into accomplished songs.^[1] Bono and the Edge believed the shortage of progress was the fault of the band, whereas Clayton and Mullen believed the issue was the standard of the songs.^[1] Mullen stated he “thought this is perhaps the tip” of the band.^[1]

In the end, a breakthrough within the classes was achieved. Whereas jamming on a track known as “Sick Pet”—an early model of “Mysterious Methods”—the band tried completely different chord progressions for the bridge.^[1][2] The jam stopped and the Edge tried enjoying them alone on an acoustic guitar, as “everybody was making an attempt to resolve in the event that they had been any good.”^[2] On the suggestion of producer Daniel Lanois, the Edge performed two separate sections sequentially. The band preferred the way in which it flowed and determined to play it collectively. Talking of the improvisation, the Edge stated, “instantly one thing very highly effective [was] occurring within the room.”^[2] He added, “Everybody acknowledged it was a particular piece. It was like we might caught a glimpse of what the track could possibly be.”^[3] Quickly afterwards, the band had developed the piece of music into “One”.^[1][4] Bono remembers that “the melody, the construction—the entire thing was carried out in quarter-hour”.^[5] He additionally acknowledged that the lyrics “simply fell out of the sky, a present”; the idea was impressed by the band members’ fracturing relationships,^[6] the German reunification,^[7] and Bono’s scepticism of the hippie thought of “oneness”. Bono later despatched a be aware to the Dalai Lama declining an invite to a competition known as Oneness, incorporating a line from the track: “One—however not the identical”.^[1] The track’s writing impressed the band and adjusted their outlook on the recording classes. Mullen stated the track reaffirmed the band’s “clean web page strategy” to recording and reassured the band that each one was not misplaced.^[1]

Following the track’s preliminary improvisation, tapes of the recording classes had been delivered to aiding producer Brian Eno to assemble his enter;^[5] Eno spent prolonged intervals of time away from the classes earlier than visiting to overview songs, and he believed that distancing himself from the work allowed him to offer the band with a contemporary perspective on their materials every time he rejoined them.^[9] The band had been reasonably anxious concerning the high quality of their materials, however when Eno arrived in Berlin, they had been shocked to listen to that he preferred a lot of the tapes.^[5] Nevertheless, as Bono remembers, Eno stated, “There’s only one track I actually despise, and that is ‘One’.”^[5] Eno felt that they wanted to deconstruct the track.^[5]

The band returned to Dublin in 1991 to document on the “Elsinore” mansion on the Dalkey shoreline.^[10] The band continued to work on the track there, including numerous overdubs, however not discovering a combination they had been happy with.^[5] The Edge thought that that they had the muse for the track, however that it wanted “foreground”.^[5] Eno interceded, explaining to the group that “One” was among the many classes’ tracks by which “The track has gone, no matter it’s you preferred about this track just isn’t there anymore”, and that the monitor had “disappeared below layers of overdubs”.^[9] He created his personal combine, which gave the band a greater thought of an association they preferred.^[5] Eno needed the band to take away the melancholy components of the track and persuaded them to take away the acoustic guitar from the track.^[1] He additionally labored with Lanois and the Edge to “undermine the ‘too lovely’ feeling”, which is why they added the “crying guitar elements which have an aggression to them”.^[1] Whereas working with Lanois within the studio on a vocal overdub, Bono prompt Lanois “play a bit guitar half to try to juice [him] up”. Lanois subsequently took Bono’s inexperienced Gretsch guitar and performed a hammer-on half that was included within the remaining model of the track.^[11]

Flood, the classes’ engineer, was unconvinced by the track’s combine, saying he “was the nagging doubter. I at all times felt it was a bit straight, till we did the ultimate combine.”^[5] The ultimate combine was accomplished at Windmill Lane Studios in September 1991 on the final night time of the album’s recording classes,^[5][10] when some final minute additions had been made. Bono didn’t like a line within the vocals and spent a lot of the day re-recording it.^[5] Later, after the track’s combine had simply been accomplished by the manufacturing crew, the Edge got here up with a guitar half he needed so as to add to the track’s finish close to the lyric “Love is a temple”.^[5][10] After convincing the manufacturing crew to permit the addition, the Edge performed the half as soon as and had it blended in ten minutes later.^[10]

Composition

“One” is a rock ballad performed in a 4/4 time signature at a tempo of 91 beats per minute. The verse follows a chord development of Am–D5–Fmaj₇–G whereas the refrain follows C–Am–Fmaj₇–C.^[12]

Bono described the track’s theme as such: “It’s a track about coming collectively, however it’s not the outdated hippie thought of ‘Let’s all dwell collectively.’ It’s, actually, the alternative. It is saying, We’re one, however we’re not the identical. It is not saying we even need to get alongside, however that we’ve got to get alongside collectively on this world whether it is to outlive. It is a reminder that we’ve got no alternative”.^[13] The Edge described it on one degree as a “bitter, twisted, vitriolic dialog between two individuals who’ve been by some nasty, heavy stuff”.^[14] On one other degree, he prompt that the road “we get to hold one another” introduces “grace” to the track and that the wording “get to” (as an alternative of “received to”) is crucial, because it means that it’s a privilege to assist each other, not an obligation.^[14] The band have been advised by many followers that they performed the track at their weddings, prompting Bono to reply, “Are you mad? It is about splitting up!”^[14] There was some hypothesis that the track described a dialog between a father and his HIV-positive homosexual son, based mostly on the connection of the track to David Wojnarowicz, a homosexual artist who died of AIDS.^[15] In 2005, Bono stated “It is a father-and-son story. I attempted to jot down about somebody I knew who was popping out and was afraid to inform his father. It is a spiritual father and son.”^[16]

Launch

“One” was launched because the album’s third single on 24 February 1992 as a profit single, with all the band’s royalties being donated to completely different AIDS analysis organisations for every nation by which the one was launched.^[17][18][19] The group’s supervisor Paul McGuinness commented on their resolution: “The band feels that [AIDS] is probably the most urgent problem of the day, and we actually should focus folks’s consideration to the AIDS plague that has been with us for 10 years.”^[18] To advertise secure intercourse, U2 offered condoms bearing the album title Achtung Child at their Zoo TV Tour concert events.^[19] The duvet of the one launch is {a photograph} by David Wojnarowicz. The {photograph} depicts buffaloes falling off a cliff after being chased by Native American hunters.^[19] The only’s liner notes clarify that Wojnarowicz “identifies himself and ourselves with the buffalo, pushed into the unknown by forces we can’t management and even perceive”.^[20]

The only reached quantity seven within the UK Singles Chart, quantity ten within the US Billboard Scorching 100, and primary on the US Album Rock Tracks^[21] and Fashionable Rock Tracks charts.^[22]

Music movies

Three music movies had been created for “One”. The primary, directed by Anton Corbijn, was filmed in Berlin and options the band members acting at Hansa Studios interspersed with footage of Trabants (an East German car they turned keen on as an emblem for a altering Europe) and photographs of them wearing drag. Bono defined that the concept to crossdress “had been based mostly on the concept that if U2 cannot do that, we have to do it!”, and it was fostered by the group’s experiences dressing in drag for the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.^[23] Nevertheless, the band pulled the video, fearing the one’s standing as an AIDS profit would end in critics discovering AIDS-related interpretations of the video. The Edge defined, “We did not need to be concerned in placing again the AIDS problem into the realm of sexuality… It wasn’t definitely worth the danger of individuals imagining we had been saying one thing concerning the AIDS problem by the drag footage, which was completely not what we had been making an attempt to say.”^[24]

The second video was directed by Mark Pellington. It includes pictures of blooming flowers, the title phrase in a number of languages, and slow-motion footage of buffaloes operating, main as much as Wojnarowicz’s “Falling Buffalo” {photograph}. Very like for the primary video, the band didn’t consider Pellington’s video could be good for selling the one.^[25]

The group filmed a 3rd video in an try and attraction to a broader viewers. It was directed by Rattle and Hum director Phil Joanou and was primarily filmed in early March 1992 at Nell’s, a Manhattan nightclub.^[25][26] The video depicts Bono sitting at a desk smoking a cheroot and ingesting beer, interspersed with footage of the band performing in live performance.^[26] Whereas Bono was filmed, the remainder of the band, together with fashions and transvestites, attended a celebration within the basement, awaiting their turns to be filmed. Nevertheless, they had been by no means known as to the set and by 3 a.m., they realised that the video was to concentrate on Bono.^[27]

Reception

After the discharge of Achtung Child, critics praised “One”. In its overview of the album, Leisure Weekly known as the track “biting and unprecedentedly emotional” and opined that its “extravagant stylings and wild emotings […] put it amongst Bono’s most dramatic moments on document”.^[28] In its overview of the album, Rolling Stone known as the track a “radiant ballad”, noting that “Few bands can marshal such chic energy, however it’s simply one of many many moments on Achtung Child after we’re reminded why, earlier than these guys had been the butt of cynical jokes, they had been rock & roll heroes—as they nonetheless are.”^[29] Niall Stokes of Scorching Press gave an enthusiastic overview of the track, calling it one of many album’s tracks “whose efficiency defies equivocations”. Stokes stated the track, each upon preliminary and repeated listens, “appears transcendent, a powerful synthesis of components, phrases and music, rhythm, instrumentation association and intonation mix to create one thing that speaks a language past logic, the definitive language of emotional reality”. He stated the melody was paying homage to Led Zeppelin and the vocals evoked recollections of Al Inexperienced and The Rolling Stones circa “Sympathy for the Satan”. Stokes couldn’t single out what made the track so “totally inspirational”, however stated it was “soul music that avoids the plain cliches of the style and cuts to the core”.^[30]

Q known as Bono’s singing on the track a “quieter second” that has “by no means been so persuasively tender”.^[31] The Chicago Tribune wrote that the track “builds with the stately grandeur of a Roy Orbison ballad” and that Bono’s lyric “We’re one / However we’re not the identical” is one in all “pithiest insights but concerning the contradiction of marriage”.^[32] The Orlando Sentinel known as the monitor “sorrowful” and in contrast it to music by The Rolling Stones.^[33] Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Occasions known as the “disillusioned” monitor one of many album’s excessive factors.^[34] Denise Sullivan of Allmusic wrote that the track was “amongst U2’s best recordings”, and he or she praised its “lyrical simplicity, heart-rending vocal supply, and evocative instrumentation”. She known as the Edge’s guitar enjoying “unusually heat and soulful”.^[35] Within the 1992 Pazz & Jop critics’ ballot in The Village Voice, “One” positioned at quantity eight on the “Finest Single” checklist.^[36]

In 1992, Axl Rose advised RIP journal: “I believe their track ‘One’ is without doubt one of the biggest songs ever written. Now I can see and perceive why folks had been into U2 years in the past.”^[37]

Dwell performances

“One” made its dwell debut on 29 February 1992 in Lakeland, Florida on the opening night time of the Zoo TV Tour,^[38] and it was performed at each subsequent present on U2’s live performance excursions till the primary present of the Innocence + Expertise Tour in Vancouver, the place it was not performed for the primary time in its historical past. Nevertheless, the track returned for the next live performance, when it was used because the present nearer.^[39] Zoo TV performances had been accompanied by footage from the second music video being displayed on the stage’s video screens, with David Wojnarowicz’s “Falling Buffalo” {photograph} showing on the finish of the track.^[40]

The track took on an much more emotional that means at a Popmart Tour present at Mexico Metropolis in 1997, as featured on PopMart: Dwell from Mexico Metropolis, the place the tearful rendition was devoted to Michael Hutchence of INXS. Till the second leg of the U2 360° Tour, “One” was performed dwell in the important thing of A♭ minor, whereas the recorded model is performed a semitone increased. All through its historical past, Bono has usually sung the track with an additional verse generally called “Hear Us Coming”, whose lyrics are normally some variation of:

It was a nearly-regular function on the Zoo TV Tour, PopMart, and Elevation Excursions, however was sung much less usually on the Vertigo Tour. The verse made a re-emergence on the 2009 legs of the U2 360° Tour; though it was not a nightly function, Bono sang it fairly often, segueing into “Superb Grace” and from there into “The place the Streets Have No Identify” on a lot of the second leg. “One” has additionally been performed at a number of profit concert events, together with the 1995 Pavarotti and Pals live performance in Modena, the 1997 Tibetan Freedom Live performance in New York, the 2003 46664 live performance, at Dwell 8 in 2005, and with Mary J. Blige on Shelter from the Storm: A Live performance for the Gulf Coast.

Dwell performances of the track are additionally depicted within the live performance movies Zoo TV: Dwell from Sydney, U2 Go House: Dwell from Slane Citadel, Vertigo 2005: Dwell from Chicago, U2 3D, and U2 360° on the Rose Bowl.

Legacy

“One” has steadily appeared on lists of the best songs. In 2004, Rolling Stone positioned the track at quantity 36 on its checklist of “The five hundred Best Songs of All Time”, making it the highest-ranked U2 track;^[41] it remained in that place on the journal’s 2010 model of the checklist,^[42] however was re-ranked to 62nd on the 2021 model.^[43] In 2003, a particular version problem of Q, titled “1001 Finest Songs Ever”, named “One” the best track of all-time.^[44] VH1 ranked the track second on its checklist of “Best Songs of the 90s”,^[45] and voters in an April 2006 ballot on VH1 named the track as having the UK’s number-one lyric: “One life, with one another, sisters, brothers”.^[46] In 2005, Blender ranked the track at quantity 4 on its checklist of “The five hundred Best Songs Since You Had been Born”.^[3] The next 12 months, readers of Q voted “One” the fifth-greatest track in historical past.^[47] The track subsequently appeared as one in all seven U2 songs within the 2006 music reference e-book 1001 Songs: The Nice Songs of All Time and the Artists, Tales, and Secrets and techniques.^[48] It’s included within the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame’s 500 Songs that Formed Rock and Roll.^[49]

On 31 December 2006, “One” was introduced by BBC Radio 1 to be the thirty-fifth highest-selling single of 2006 within the UK.^[50] The collaboration was additionally nominated for the Grammy Award for Finest Pop Collaboration with Vocals in December 2006.

In late 2006, a Financial institution of America worker sang “One” with lyrics modified to consult with the Financial institution of America and MBNA merger. The video subsequently turned an Web phenomenon.^[51] Common Music Group, the copyright proprietor of the track, posted a stop and desist letter directed at Financial institution of America within the feedback part of Stereogum, one of many blogs that posted the video.^[52]

Observe listings

The only was launched on numerous codecs together with 7-inch, 12-inch, cassette, and CD. All releases featured a brand new track “Woman with the Spinning Head (UV1)” as a B-side monitor. This model was later included within the twentieth anniversary launch of Achtung Child, whereas an prolonged ‘dance’ remix was included on the double album model of The Better of 1990–2000. Some releases additionally included “Satellite tv for pc of Love” or each “Satellite tv for pc of Love” and the “Evening and Day” remix.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Producer	Size
1.	“One”	Bono	U2	Daniel Lanois Brian Eno	4:36
2.	“Woman with the Spinning Head (UV1)”	Bono	U2	Paul Barrett	3:54
3.	“Satellite tv for pc of Love”	Lou Reed	Reed	The Edge and Barrett	4:00
4.	“Evening and Day” (Metal String remix)	Cole Porter	Porter	The Edge and Barrett	7:00

Credit and personnel

Charts and certifications

Mica Paris model

British soul singer Mica Paris launched a canopy of “One” in 1995.^[82] Launched on 27 March 1995,^[83] her model debuted and peaked at quantity 29 on the UK Singles Chart on the week ending 8 April 1995. It spent a complete of 4 weeks on the chart.

Vital reception

Pan-European journal Music & Media wrote, “Because of Mica’s urbane dance contact, folks all over the place–from London to Rome, Tokyo, New York and again to Paris–will dance to a U2 track in different environment than Zooroparenas.” Piccadilly radio/Manchester music coordinator Christian Smith stated it is a “sensible monitor”, including, “Because it begins of actually sluggish, I would not be shocked if a number of radio programmers have a tough time entering into it. However the truth that it is such a widely known monitor will definitely assist.”^[84]

Observe itemizing

CD single^[85]

No.	Title	Lyrics	Producer	Size
1.	“One”	Bono	Paul Oakenfold Steve Osborne	4:30
2.	“One” (Authentic Combine)	Bono	Mike Peden	4:37
3.	“One” (Perfecto Combine)	Bono	Paul Oakenfold Steve Osborne	5:59
4.	“One” (Ethnic Boyz Combine)	Bono	Ethnic Boyz	5:01
5.	“One” (Perfecto Dub)	Bono	Paul Oakenfold Steve Osborne	7:48

Vinyl^[86]

Facet one

No.	Title	Lyrics	Producer	Size
1.	“One” (Perfecto Combine)	Bono	Paul Oakenfold Steve Osborne	4:30
2.	“One” (Authentic Combine)	Bono	Mike Peden	4:37

Facet two

No.	Title	Lyrics	Producer	Size
1.	“One” (Ethnic Boyz Combine)	Bono	Ethnic Boyz	5:01
2.	“One” (Perfecto Dub)	Bono	Paul Oakenfold Steve Osborne	7:48

Credit and personnel

Performers^[87]

• Mica Paris – vocals

Managerial

• Govt producer – Ken Grunbaum

Technical and Manufacturing

• Manufacturing – Mike Peden (monitor 2), Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osbourne (tracks 1,3 and 5), Ethic Boyz (monitor 4)
• Engineering – Paul ‘Max’ Bloom
• Programming – Ollie Dagois

Visuals and Imagery

• Images – Daniela Federici
• Picture and magnificence – Jamie Rose

Charts

Chart (1995)	Peak place
Australia (ARIA)[88]	104
Australia (Australian Music Report)[89]	89
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[90]	50
Scotland (OCC)[91]	26
UK Singles (OCC)[92]	29
UK R&B (OCC)[93]	5
UK Membership Chart (Music Week)[94]	35
UK on a Pop Tip Membership Chart (Music Week)[95]	26

Mary J. Blige and U2 model

American singer Mary J. Blige coated “One” for her seventh studio album, The Breakthrough, with U2 and launched it because the second worldwide single from the album. After being invited to hitch the group on stage at their New York gig in 2005, Blige carried out the monitor with U2 and acquired a standing ovation.^{[citation needed]} The track was then recorded that includes Blige on lead vocals, with Bono supplying further vocals and the band performing the music. It was launched on 3 April 2006,^[96] having already been featured closely on BBC Radio 1’s playlist, and has been a staple document on Capital FM’s playlist since late January.

Chart efficiency

The track was a serious industrial success in Europe, reaching quantity two in Eire and the UK and topping the Norwegian Singles Chart for six weeks. The duvet additionally reached primary in Austria for per week and reached the highest 10 in a number of different European nations.

Dwell performances

In Could 2006, Blige carried out the track on the finale of American Idol with finalist Elliott Yamin, forward of its full launch to American radio.^[97] It was additionally utilized by Fox for its end-of-season montage after recreation 5 of the 2006 World Sequence.^[98]

Observe itemizing

CD single

CD 01^[99]

No.	Title	Lyrics	Size
1.	“One” (radio edit)	Bono	4:04
2.	“Cannot Disguise From Luv” (dwell)		3:52

CD 02^[100]

No.	Title	Lyrics	Size
1.	“One” (radio edit)	Bono	4:04
2.	“I am Goin’ Down” (Dwell on the Cipriani Wall Avenue Live performance Sequence)		3:24
3.	“My Life ’05”		3:24

Credit

• Written by Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr
• Produced by Ron Honest
• Co-producered by Tal Herzberg
• Lead vocals carried out by Mary J Blige
• Extra vocals and rhythm guitar carried out by Bono
• Lead guitar carried out by The Edge
• Bass carried out by Adam Clayton
• Drums and percussion carried out by Larry Mullen Jr
• Strings organized and carried out by Ron Honest
• Piano and organ carried out by Ron Honest
• Extra electrical and acoustic guitar carried out by John Goux
• Combined by Jack Joseph
• Govt producer: Mary J. Blige

Charts and certifications

Different covers

“One” has been coated by quite a few different artists, together with Damien Rice, Johnny Logan, Johnny Money, Adam Lambert, Howie Day, Joe Cocker, Warren Haynes, R.E.M., Gregorian, Pearl Jam, Kendall Payne, Shinedown, Vanessa Paradis & Alain Lanty, Cowboy Junkies and the solid of the tv sequence Glee.^[139]

Beneath a supergroup label of “Automated Child” (reflecting the names of then current releases by each teams), members of R.E.M. and U2 performed an acoustic model of the track throughout a 1993 MTV live performance for then newly inaugurated U.S. president Invoice Clinton.^[140] In 1997 this model of “One” reached primary in Iceland and ended the 12 months because the nation’s Twelfth-most-successful single.^[141][142]

Damien Rice reworked the track for the 2011 tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Lined. “I keep in mind seeing the queues on Dublin’s Grafton Avenue: folks ready, sleeping, for the primary copies of the brand new U2 document, as if some famine had hit the soul of the music world,” he remarked. “20 years later, I busked for the homeless with Bono on the identical road. We performed ‘One’ and Bono appeared to neglect the phrases, however I did not – they had been as clear to me because the Our Father. Seventeen (Rice’s age when Achtung Child was issued) is such a strong age, and ‘One’ is such a strong track.”^[143]

See additionally

• Record of covers of U2 songs – One
• Record of number-one singles of 1992 (Eire)
• Record of RPM number-one singles of 1992
• Record of number-one mainstream rock hits (United States)
• Record of number-one hits of 2006 (Austria)
• Record of number-one songs in Norway
• Primary fashionable rock hits of 1992

Footnotes

Bibliography