The first track of an album is sometimes the LP’s most important. It’s not necessarily always the best song on an album, but song number one introduces the album, thereby setting the tone and standard of quality that is to follow. “Hells Bells” from AC/DC’s Back in Black sets the stage for a record that would become the second best selling album of all time. Other opening tracks like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Guns N’ Roses’s “Welcome to the Jungle,” and N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” successfully kick off their respective iconic albums. And while fans might argue that those tracks are not necessarily the album’s best, they’re probably the most important.

So then, what about a song called “One?” Does that also suggest significance? I think it does!

Something about the singularness and definitiveness of titling a song, or anything, One inherently adds weight. “One” stands alone; it is the first, it’s at the top, and even though it is the beginning, there is also something final about “One” as a title. Even before you hear it (or especially before you hear it) a song titled “One” will seem much more powerful than a song, say, called “Two,” or “Three,” or even “One Hundred.”

It’s also entirely possible I’m thinking too hard about this. But I’ve already written most of this article, so it’s too late to turn back now! 

The first “One” I ever heard was Three Dog Night’s 1969 cover of Harry Nilsson’s bittersweet rock ballad from the year before. It was fun as a kid, and it’s still a fun song now. “One” was track one from Three Dog Night’s first album, which is self-titled but often referred to by fans simply as One. Three Dog Night largely leaned into the “first-ness” of what would be the most memorable song from their debut album, so I’ll give them a pass for releasing it as their second single.

While the song “One” is the highlight of album one, it’s far from being an important song in the grand scheme of things. Of TDN’s 21 top 40 hits, “One” isn’t their best, and never hit No. 1 itself, unlike “Joy To The World,” an all-time feel-good song that would go on to have an unlikely and lasting connection to alternative and lo-fi music through Daniel Johnston’s legendary character, Jeremiah the Innocence Frog (also known as Jeremiah The Frog of Innosense), which was the artwork for his influential album Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album.

And, no, “One” isn’t a particularly important song in Harry Nilsson’s catalog either. Not only is it easy to forget that he originally released the song, but it is overshadowed by every track on Nilsson Schmilsson, and “One” isn’t even the most iconic song from the album that its on (that honor goes to Nilsson’s cover of “Everybody’s Talkin’,” which was used as the theme song to 1969’s Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustin Hoffman).

The other two “One’s” have bit more going for them, in terms of legacy.

The next “One” comes crashing into our skulls to remind us that war is hell, courtesy of Metallica at the peak/end of their prog-thrash-metal phase. Whereas Nilsson/Three Dog Night tells us that “one is the loneliest number,” Metallica’s James Hetfield paints a horrifying picture of something lonelier: a World War One soldier who has lost his sight, hearing, speech, and limbs to a landmine, and is kept alive against his will in an army hospital. Unlike our other “One’s,” Hetfield only sings the word “one” one time, in this lyric: “Now the world is gone, I’m just one / Oh, God, help me / Hold my breath as I wish for death.” The title “One” therefore refers to the injured solider feeling like the only thing left in the world, as he can’t perceive any other aspect of it. Heavy stuff.

“One” is not the first track on 1988’s …And Justice For All, but it is definitely the most important track. And while it may not be Metallica’s best song, there’s an argument to be made that it is their most important song. For one, the song spawned Metallica’s first music video, which received heavy rotation despite its dark subject matter and nearly-eight-minute runtime. Entering the video age proved to be a boon to the angry foursome, as the video helped “One” become the first Metallica song to chart, and eventually pushed …And Justice For All into the number six slot of the Billboard 200. 

Not to interrupt myself, but I can feel many members of the Metal Militia scoffing at this assertion. A Metallica fan reading this might be thinking that “Master of Puppets” or “Enter Sandman” is actually their most significant song. “Master of Puppets” is, of course, the title track of their first gold album, which just precedes …And Justice For All, and is often, though not always, ranked higher than “One” on rock and metal listicles. And “Enter Sandman” is their most famous song, which opens up what would be their next album, the wildly successful self-titled “Black Album.” You’ve no doubt heard it at sporting events, on classic rock radio, and possibly at the grocery store. One could make a reasonable argument that either of those songs are more important than “One.” My argument is that even though “Master” is better, and “Sandman” is bigger, “One” is the song that helped legitimize not only Metallica, but metal as an entire genre. Remember, “One” was the song that first got them on the radio, on the TV, and it was the song that won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1990. The success of “One” meant that metal had a viability and sustainability outside its glam/hair sub-genre. Without the popularity of “One,” generations of metalheads might not have known to seek out Metallica’s previous three quicker, scrappier, and (almost objectively) better albums. And without the taste of success Metallica received from “One,” and the fatigue they experienced from playing the exhaustingly long songs on …And Justice For All, they might never have shortened, simplified, and radio-friendlied their music for the next decade and a half. (This is how we get hits like “Enter Sandman” and “Nothing Else Matters,” plus whatever St. Anger was.) “One” is a shining moment, and also a bridge between two parts of Metallica’s career. It might be why Metallica is one of only three proper metal bands inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And then there are fellow Hall of Famers, U2, and their own “One.” It isn’t an album’s first track, it wasn’t the first single, and according to Bono it isn’t even about “oneness.” But it is a big deal.

I will be honest: I am not much of a U2 fan. I don’t casually or recreationally listen to them. In fact, my editor had to remind me that U2 even had a song titled “One.” But after a re-listen, I do recognize that this song is pretty good, and quite important.

“One” appears on 1991’s Achtung Baby (German for Danger Infant), the fourth U2 project produced by the prolific and impressive combo of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (Neil Young would even name his 2010 album after Lanois, in the form of the pun Le Noise). At 18 million copies sold the results are undeniable. Though it hasn’t sold as much as The Joshua Tree (at 25x platinum, only a few dozen albums ever have), Achtung Baby is still occasionally ranked over Tree as U2’s best effort, thanks in part to the presence of “One.”

U2 were determined to show they’d outgrown their 80’s sound by the time they released their first albums of the 90’s, and so Achtung incorporated sonics not heard from the band previously, including alternative rock and electronic dance music. The band also almost outgrew each other in the process, apparently on the verge of breaking up until they improvised what would become…you guessed it: “One.” If we’re talking about songs important to the band that played them, it’s hard to find one of more significance than “One,” the song that literally saved U2.

I became familiar with U2 only after they’d already become the butt of countless jokes regarding Bono’s smugness, The Edge’s lack of edge, and, of course, that mandatory iPhone download (I was an Apple employee at the time Songs of Innocence (no relation to Jeremiah the Frog) suddenly appeared on everyone’s devices—and it was a nightmare). But even the cynics cannot dismiss the impact of “One,” which would top charts around the world, is consistently listed as one of the top songs of all time, and is often used to promote social justice causes. The proceeds from the single even went towards AIDS research. The song has even been covered by [cooler] artists of other genres, such as Mary J. Blige, Johnny Cash, and Warren Haynes. The track has an impressive amount of musical crossover and impact.

So U2’s song might take the prize for largest scale importance. Reading this will likely annoy any metalheads, who no doubt know that Metallica’s “One” did a lot for a genre that is still largely under appreciated by rock and pop critics. With two songs so massive yet so different, it’s hard to please to all fans. But it doesn’t hurt to try.

Cue the late great Chris Cornell. Cornell released a live recording of a “One” mashup—U2’s chords and Metallica’s lyrics, which came together because he wanted to cover U2’s song live, but when he looked up the lyrics online, he found Metallica’s first. So he put “One” and “One” together. Some will love it, but others will think that “Two” can be as bad as “One”; it’s the loneliest number since the number one.

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