Among the songs developed was “One,” which became something of a breakthrough for the then struggling group.  The song emerged on two tracks.  Band members The Edge and others were working on the music, and Bono on lyrics.  Part of the inspiration for the lyrics reportedly grew out of a note Bono had sent to the Dalai Lama declining an invitation to a festival called Oneness. The note included, in part, the line, “one — but not the same,” a line which would later appear in the song’s lyrics.  That idea of “oneness,” Bono would later say, was a key concept for the song. 

     Known for his sometimes fortuitous improvisations at the microphone during recording sessions, Bono would later explain that the lyrics for “One” arrived in like fashion — “just fell out of the sky, a gift.”  Improvements to the song’s music and lyrics were made right up to the time of final recording back in Dublin, Ireland some months later.  Also important in this process was the production team of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno who had helped U2 on previous albums.  However, in Berlin, when it first came together on “One,” there was a feeling they had found something new with this music, validated their “blank page” approach, and were on the right track.

     “At the instant we were recording it, I got a very strong sense of its power,” explained The Edge.  “We were all playing together in the big recording room, a huge, eerie ballroom full of ghosts of the war, and everything fell into place. It was a reassuring moment… It’s the reason you’re in a band — when the spirit descends upon you and you create something truly affecting.  ‘One’ is an incredibly moving piece.  It hits straight into the heart.”

     Rolling Stone’s Elysa Gardner reviewing the finished album in January 1992 singled out the song as well. “…On the radiant ballad ‘One’,” she wrote, “the band invests an unexceptional message — ‘We’re one/But we’re not the same/We get to carry each other’ — with such urgency that it sounds like a revelation.  Few bands can marshal such sublime power, but it’s just one of the many moments on Achtung Baby when we’re reminded why, before these guys were the butt of cynical jokes, they were rock & roll heroes — as they still are.”

Message & Meaning

     The song’s lyrics, at their start, appear to focus on the ebb and flow of a personal love relationship and all its difficulties, head games, and contradictions.  But as the song progresses, it seems to become more of a universal message on the need for diverse peoples to work together despite their differences. 

Bono has stated about writing the song: “I had a lot of things going on in my head at the time, about forgiveness, about father and son angst,” raising some of Bono’s past relationship with his father following the death of his mother when he was 14.  But on the more universal front, Bono has offered additional description.  “It is a song about coming together,” he explained to Los Angeles Times writer Robert Hilburn in 1993, “but it’s not the old hippie idea of  ‘Let’s all live together.’  It is, in fact, the opposite.  It’s saying, ‘We are one, but we’re not the same.’  It’s not saying we even want to get along, but that we have to get along together in this world if it is to survive.  It’s a reminder that we have no choice.”

     After the song’s release, listeners attributed their own interpretations to the song — ranging from an HIV-infected gay son in conversation with his father, to a confrontation between Christ and Satan over universal spiritual values.  Adding to, and/or, fueling these varying interpretations of the song were three music videos, each with somewhat different material.  One with a gay son confessing to his father that he is HIV-positive; another with footage of blooming flowers and buffalos (buffalo going over a cliff are also depicted on the single CD cover), and a third video with Bono in a bar, smoking a cheroot and drinking beer.  Interpretations aside  — and these can be found in great abundance on the web —  the song and the album, Achtung Baby, did quite well commercially.

CD cover for “One,” depicting buffalo going over a cliff. Photo, David Wojnarowicz. Click for digital.

Multi-Platinum

     From its first release in Europe, “One” rose into the Top Ten on most but not all charts.  It hit No. 1 in Ireland the first week of March 1992; No. 1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks by April 4, 1992; and No. 1 in Canada for four weeks in May 1992.  In the U.K. it peaked at No. 7 on the singles chart and in the U.S. it rose to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It also had a Top Ten performance in Australia and Top 40 ranking in Holland, France, and Switzerland, also doing well in Germany and Denmark.  Meanwhile, the full album Achtung Baby, which also featured the song “One” as its third track, had done well too.  It peaked at No.2 on the U.S. album chart and at No.1 on the U.K. album chart, also doing well in other countries such as Switzerland and Australia.  Achtung Baby — which won a Grammy for Best Rock Album by a group — was certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA) and would sell more than 10 million units.

     U2 had donated a large amount of the proceeds from the single’s sale to AIDs charities.  The photograph of buffalo going over a cliff used on the U2 single was by gay artist David Wojnarowicz who intended it as symbolism to highlight the AID crisis.  Wojnarowicz later died from AIDs.  The second music video which used some of this buffalo imagery was also used on a huge screen as the backdrop to U2’s performance of the song during their Zoo TV tour.  The resulting work combined words, running buffalo and flowers.  A number of concert attendees who reported seeing it with U2’s performance of “One” described it as quite a moving experience.

“One” Stands Out

     After being in the musical firmament for more than a decade, U2’s “One” continues to register its share of fans and admirers.  In 2003, the British music magazine Q asked a selection of well-known musicians to cast their votes for a list of great songs — a list that would include the 1001 Greatest Songs of All-Time.  Voted No. 1 in this survey was U2’s “One”.  Q’s editor-in-chief, Paul Trynka, said of the winner: “I think people voted for this because it’s a classic that still feels fresh…It’s a great tune but despite being over ten years old we haven’t had time to get bored of it,” he said.  “It’s inspirational, it makes people feel good, but it also feels profound It’s inspirational, it makes people feel good, but it also feels profound…
                           – Q editor Paul Trynka
                              on U2’s “One.” — all the more so when you hear Johnny Cash’s recent cover version.”  Cash had covered the song in November 2000 on his American III: Solitary Man album.  “One” has been covered by more than 25 other artists.

     In December 2004, when Rolling Stone magazine compiled its list of 500 Greatest Songs, “One” was ranked at No. 36, lower than Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”(No. 31) and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin” (No. 34 ) for example, but ahead of “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones (No. 38); and “Dancing in the Street,” by Martha and the Vandellas (No. 40). In 2005, when U2 gave a concert in New York, hip-hop and soul artist Mary J. Blige was invited on stage to perform the song with U2. The performance received a standing ovation. The song was then recorded featuring Blige on lead vocals, with Bono supplying additional vocals and the band performing the music. That song was then featured on Mary J. Blige’s multi-platinum album The Breakthrough, released in late 2005, and also released as an international single in April 2006.

Recent U2

U2 group, from left: Adam Clayton, The Edge, Bono, and Larry Mullen, Jr. Photo, Time, Deidre O’Callaghan. Click for photo.

The band’s February 2009 album, No Line on the Horizon, was released to popular acclaim and was well received by most critics. It sold 484,000 copies its first week on the market.

But in its March 19th, 2009 edition, Rolling Stone magazine featured the group in a cover story indicating the group was once again in search of its muse — “U2 Digs Deep: Inside the Group’s Troubled Quest for a New Sound & Soul.” 

Yet, U2 emerged as strong as ever, as another decade of successful albums and touring followed. According to Billboard, the band grossed $1.67 billion in ticket sales from 1990 to 2016, second only to the Rolling Stones.

Rolling Stone featured U2 on the cover of their November 28, 1991 issue, touting an ‘exclusive’ on the making of the album, ‘Achtung Baby’. Click for magazine subscription.

Throughout their career, the band and its members have campaigned for human rights and social justice causes, including Amnesty International and the ONE Campaign, a U.S.-based, nonpartisan, non-profit organization founded in 2004 with funding from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ONE is seeking, among other goals, to increase the effectiveness of international aid programs aimed at extreme poverty and global diseases. For more on U2, their music and other activities see their website link below and/or other listed sources.

See also at this website: “U2’s MLK Songs: 1984,” (history of two songs by Bono & U2 commemorating Martin Luther King); and, “The iPod Silhouettes, 2000-2011” (about Apple’s iPod & iTunes advertising imagery and music, including a section on Bono & U2 in one of those campaigns). For additional stories on music history, see the “Annals of Music” category page.

Thanks for visiting – and if you like what you find here, please make a donation to help support the research and writing at this website. Thank you. – Jack Doyle.

________________________

Date Posted:  3 June 2009
Last Update:  22 August 2019
Comments to:  jdoyle@pophistorydig.com

Article Citation:
Jack Doyle, “U2 Song – ‘One,’ 1992,”
PopHistoryDig.com, June 3, 2009.

___________________________________

Sources, Links & Additional Information

‘One’ also appears on U2's ‘18 Singles’ album. Cover photo taken in Dublin in 1979. From left: Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Jr., Bono, and The Edge. Click for CD.

U2's ‘Best of 1990-2000' album. Click for CD.

U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind" album (Oct 2000). Click for CD, vinyl or digital.

U2 Website.

U2 artwork by Kostas Tsipos, graphic designer and photographer based in Greece.

“U2,” Wikipedia.com.

“Achtung Baby,” Wikipedia.com

“U2’s One Named ‘Greatest Record’,” BBC News November 18, 2003.

“David Wojnarowicz’s Buffalo Over a Cliff,” Dinesh’s Photo Album, June 27, 2008.

Neil McCormick (ed.), U2 by U2, New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

Tania Branigan, “U2 Crush Beatles in Top Album Poll,” The Guardian, Thursday, November 22, 2001.

Mark Chatterton, U2: The Complete Encyclopedia, New York: Firefly, 2001.

Bill Flanagan, U2: At the End of the World, New York: Delta, 1996.

Cover Story, “Exclusive: The Making of Achtung Baby,” Rolling Stone, November 1991.

Elysa Gardner, Album Review, “U2, Achtung Baby,” Rolling Stone, January 9, 1992.

Jon Pareles, Recordings View, “U2 Takes a Turn From the Universal to the Domestic,” New York Times, Sunday, November 17, 1991.

Stephen Holden, “Irish U2, a Young Quartet, Plays at the Ritz,” New York Times, March 9, 1981.

“U2: Induction Year 2005,” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Brian Eno, “The Making of Achtung Baby,” The U2 Station News Blog, January 1, 1991.

Josh Tyrangiel, “U2’s Unsatisfied — and Unsatisfying — New Album,” Time, Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Photo Gallery: “Thirty Years of U2,” Time, February 2009.

J. Freedom du Lac, “U2 Finds There’s Much Virtue on ‘The Horizon’,” Washington Post, February 24, 2009, p. C-1.

Chris Klimek, “U2’s Roots Revisited In ‘The Joshua Tree’; Album’s Musical Power Endures In New 20th-Anniversary Reissue,” Wash- ington Post, November 27, 2007. p. C-5.

Sridhar Pappu, “Bono’s Calling; The Irish Rocker Has a Mission: To Fight Poverty, and Enlist the Powerful in the Battle,” Washington Post, November 26, 2007, p. C-1.

“Bono and Friends Open Bid to Make World Poverty a Focus of ’08 Race,” Washington Post, Politics, June 12, 2007, p. A-6.

“The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,” Rolling Stone, November-December 2004.