1 thing

mixed by dave jackson / ultimix

"1 Thing" is a 2005 single by American R&B singer Amerie. The first single from Amerie's second album, Touch, and the only single from the soundtrack to the 2005 romantic comedy film Hitch, "1 Thing" peaked at number eight in the United States and number four in the United Kingdom, becoming Amerie's first top ten single and her biggest hit to date. The single was certified Platinum (200,000+ copies) by the RIAA and earned Amerie a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" in 2006. "1 Thing" was recently certified Gold by the RIAA for selling 500,000 in ring tones.

song information...

"1 Thing" was written by Amerie and Rich Harrison and is built around a sample of The Meters' 1970 version of the same-titled theme song from Oh! Calcutta!, written by Samuel Walden. Built around The Meters' funky beat-driven percussion, "1 Thing" finds Amerie lamenting on an aspect of a relationship that keeps her satisfied. Even if other factors are less than positive, there is one thing that keeps her hooked ("It's this one thing that's got me trippin...").

Although the song is Amerie's biggest hit to date, it was almost not released. In 2004, while working on her second album, Amerie enlisted the services of producer Rich Harrison, who had helped produce and write her first album. Harrison soon got to work and created a backing track from a loop of "Oh, Calcutta!", and presented it to Amerie. The singer was pleased with it, and the two immediately began to write melodies and lyrics for the song.

Despite a 2002 hit in "Why Don't We Fall in Love", Amerie was, at this time, relatively unestablished in the music industry. When Amerie's label, Sony, heard "1 Thing", they felt its unusual sound was too risky for the singer, and decided to shelve it. Harrison tried to step in to vouch for the song; he had produced a similar-sounding hit, "Crazy in Love", for Beyoncé, the year before, and hoped he could convince Sony to release the song based on the success of "Crazy in Love". Sony was unconvinced and refused to release the single.

After the song had been shelved for nearly a year and a half, Amerie began to get frustrated. There was talk of Jennifer Lopez taking the song for herself, and Amerie was not pleased, as she still felt her version had potential. In a final attempt to get the song released, Amerie and Harrison leaked the track to radio stations across the country. Immediately, the response was positive, and the track became an unofficial hit. A displeased Sony tried to repress the song, but the radio stations continued to play it. Lopez also was not thrilled, as she had wanted the song. However, radio refused to back down, and Sony finally relented in releasing "1 Thing" as a single. Lopez had to settle on another Harrison-produced, funk-infused track, "Get Right".

the sound...

Despite being based on a Meters sample, the song belies a strong go-go influence. (Go-go is a funky, percussion-driven music indigenous to the Washington, D.C. area.) Amerie has said, "If you're not from Maryland, Washington, D.C., (Northern Virginia) area, you might not recognize the sound. The song is influenced by the style of music 'go go' which originated in Maryland, D.C., NoVA area in the late '70s and early '80s." Perhaps because of the song's go-go vibe, "1 Thing" was extremely popular in the D.C./Baltimore area; it was the most played single in clubs there for fifteen weeks.

music video...

The music video of "1 Thing", directed by Chris Robinson and Amerie, focuses on the singer's dance routines, featuring Amerie as a Go-Go dancer in various setups, intercut with footage from the film Hitch. In one scene, there is also black outlinings of the female dancers while they are dancing in red boxes behind Amerie. An alternate version of the video was created for the song's remix, which features guest vocals from rapper Eve (with Jay-Z featured on another version). A second remix features Fabolous, while little-known Torontonian producer Satya Rock has arranged an extended underground remix to feature E-40, Method Man, Lyrics Born, One Be Lo, Dres, Joe Budden, Talib Kweli, Beanie Sigel, Edan, and MF DOOM.

This text is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1 Thing".

1 thing

touch

all i have

take control