1 Thing
Encyclopedia
"1 Thing" is a song written by American R&B
singer-songwriter Amerie
and Rich Harrison
for Amerie's second studio album, Touch
(2005). The song is influenced by go-go rhythms and features a prominent sample of The Meters
' 1970 funk
recording of "Oh, Calcutta!", written by Stanley Walden. Its lyrics focus on an unidentified "thing" that fuels a romantic attraction.
The song was released as Touch's lead single
in 2005, and is 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, also peaking at number one on the U.S. R&B singles chart. Its digital download
and ringtone releases were each certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America
. The song earned Amerie a Grammy Award
nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
at the 2006 Grammy Awards. A remix
of "1 Thing" features rapper Eve
. The song ranked at number twenty-two on Rolling Stone's "100 Best Songs of the 2000s Decade" list.
accompanying the ten-second back-and-forth breakdown between Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste
and guitarist Leo Nocentelli
. Harrison said he loved the work of the Meters, especially Modeliste, commenting, "Ziggy, he's crazy." He processed the way the breakdown could be "flipped", added a bongo drum
, a cowbell, and a ride cymbal
, and sent it to Amerie. According to Harrison, they wrote and finished the song in two to three hours.
Amerie's manager, Len Nicholson, felt the song was "the single
" to release. When executives at Amerie's label, Columbia
/Sony Urban Music
, heard "1 Thing", they felt that the song's choruses needed to be "bigger". They recommended that more music be added to the percussion-focused beat, but Harrison and Amerie replied that adding more to the beat would overpower the song. Harrison and Amerie returned to the studio several times to rework the track. Each time they submitted a new version to the label, Columbia told them that the song sounded unfinished, but was unable to specify what should be changed. The label continued to refuse to release "1 Thing"; in Amerie's words, "People just weren't getting it".
Later in 2004, six months after recording "1 Thing", Amerie and Harrison leaked it to U.S. radio stations in an attempt to get it released officially. The response from DJs and listeners was positive, and it consequently received airplay across the country. Columbia Records attempted to suppress the song because it was an unofficial release, and because Jennifer Lopez
(another artist on the label) had expressed interest in recording the song for her own album, Rebirth
. Radio stations refused to retract the song from their playlists, and Columbia eventually began promoting "1 Thing" as a single, making it a last-minute addition to the Hitch soundtrack. Lopez settled on another Harrison-produced, funk-infused track, the Usher
outtake "Get Right
".
of The Meters
' 1970 version of the theme song from Oh! Calcutta!
, "Oh, Calcutta!", written by Samuel Walden. Built around The Meters' funk
y 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..."). Amerie said that the inspiration from the song came from a conversation she had with Harrison "about relationships and how there's always one thing that keeps you attracted to someone. No matter what they do or how they act, there's that one undeniable thing that keeps you coming back." She told Blender
that the "one thing" "could be bringing flowers, or something more ... physical. People think I'm just this good girl, but there are other sides they don't see."
Despite being based on a New Orleans funk sample, the song belies a strong go-go influence. Harrison likened the two based on their heavy use of percussion and chant
. Amerie stated, "You don't hear go-go outside of D.C.
... I was like, 'We have to do it in an up-tempo way because when you hear it on the radio in D.C., it's fast.' ... So it's a fresh sound for everybody but people in the D.C./Maryland
/Virginia
area. They [already] know what it is." The song is composed in the key of B major
, moving at a tempo of 100 beats per minute in common time
. It uses four-measure
phrases
with a I-III-II-I-VI chord progression
. The first four chords are played on the measure's downbeat, and off-beat syncopation
is used for the fifth chord.
's "Gold Digger
" on the 2005 Pazz & Jop
list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by Robert Christgau
. In its review of Touch, Rolling Stone
named the song "an early front-runner for song-of-the-summer status," also ranking it the number one single of 2005. Blender
ranked "1 Thing" number 191 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". It praised the song's "cascading drums…and Amerie's frantic, top-of-her-range vocals". Pitchfork Media
stated that Harrison "knows something about horns, big glorious ascending heavenly anthemic horns" and "drums, huge sweaty riotous back-and-forth second-line old-school Clyde Stubblefield
drums." Calling it "a pretty fucking smart move smart move to wrap perfect pop around a question that stays open all night", Pitchfork listed the song as the second best single of 2005, behind Antony and the Johnsons
' "Hope There's Someone". Allmusic described "1 Thing" as being "just as exciting" as "Oh, Calcutta!" for how it "[flails] all over the place with unbound joy". The song was listed at #32 on Pitchfork Media
's top 500 songs of the 2000s.
on February 12, 2005. The song gradually climbed the chart over a ten week period, peaking at number eight, and exited the chart after a total of twenty weeks. It received play from urban contemporary
stations and topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
in late April 2005. "1 Thing" also charted on the Rhythmic Top 40 and Pop 100
, reaching numbers thirteen and twenty-eight respectively. The Recording Industry Association of America
awarded a gold certification to its digital download
in October 2005, and another gold certification to its ringtone release in June 2006. The song received a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 48th Grammy Awards but lost to Mariah Carey
's "We Belong Together".
The song was successful in the British Isles. On the UK Singles Chart
, "1 Thing" debuted at number four in May 2005. It was unable to reach a higher position and spent fourteen weeks on the chart. The song ended the year as the thirty-eighth best-selling single in the UK. In Ireland, the song debuted at number ten on the Irish Singles Chart
. It climbed to number six in two weeks, remaining on the chart for another nine weeks. "1 Thing" was successful in continental Europe
, where it peaked at number thirteen on the European Hot 100 Singles
chart. It reached the top ten in Denmark, Finland, and Norway; the top twenty in Belgium and the Netherlands; and the top forty in France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland.
for "1 Thing", directed by Chris Robinson
and Amerie, revealed to the public the singer's sexual side. It focuses on her dance routines, featuring her as a go-go dancer
in various setups, intercut with footage from the film Hitch. Amerie co-directed the video with Chris Robinson
after she approached him with the video's concept in mind. The two collaborated again when directing the music video for the following single, "Touch".
The song's only official remix
features guest vocals from rapper Eve
, and an alternate version of the music video was created for it. Amerie that said she chose Eve to appear on the remix because most other female R&B singers were accompanied by male rappers, and that Eve "epitomizes that whole independent fearless female doing her thing. She's fashionable and very much a woman even though she definitely has a lot of attitude, the strength that most would attribute to men. ... With '1 Thing' being such an aggressive track, it was perfect to see two females really doing it." A second remix features Fabolous
, a third features B.G.
, and little-known Torontonian producer Satya Rock 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
. Siik remixed "1 Thing" by using instrumentals from a song by Japanese producer Nujabes
. Stylus Magazine
listed Siik's remix seventh on its list of the top ten remixes of 2005 and commented that "it's enough to warrant a whole change of venue, from the sizzling pep of the dance floor to the silk luxury of the bedroom." Most of the unofficial remixes were released on mixtape
s, and Amerie said that she liked them all, particularly those by Fabolous, B.G., and Juelz Santana
.
Lauryn Hill
sampled "1 Thing" during the second and last part of "Doo Wop (That Thing)
" during live performances. Girls Aloud
used the song as an interlude in performances of its 2004 single "Love Machine
" during its 2006 Chemistry Tour
. Foo Fighters
member Dave Grohl
showed the video for "1 Thing" during 24 Hours of Foo
, during a segment in which each member of the band presented one song that they considered their "guilty pleasure". Alternative rock
band Elbow
covered the song in a comedic fashion for an August 2005 performance on BBC Radio 1
's Live Lounge
. "1 Thing" was used in the PlayStation 2
karaoke game SingStar R&B.
CD 2
12" single
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
singer-songwriter Amerie
Amerie
Amerie Mi Marie Rogers , known professionally as Amerie or Ameriie, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She debuted in 2002 with the album All I Have, primarily co-written and produced by Rich Harrison, and was well-received in the urban market...
and Rich Harrison
Rich Harrison
Rich Harrison is a Grammy Award-winning record producer and songwriter from Washington, D.C.. He is primarily an R&B/Hip-Hop producer...
for Amerie's second studio album, Touch
Touch (Amerie album)
Touch is the second studio album by American R&B singer–songwriter Amerie, released in the United States on April 26, 2005 by Columbia Records and Sony Urban Music. It spawned two singles: the number-one R&B hit "1 Thing" and the Lil Jon-produced "Touch"...
(2005). The song is influenced by go-go rhythms and features a prominent sample of The Meters
The Meters
The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Meters performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977...
' 1970 funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
recording of "Oh, Calcutta!", written by Stanley Walden. Its lyrics focus on an unidentified "thing" that fuels a romantic attraction.
The song was released as Touch
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
in 2005, and is the only single from the soundtrack to the 2005 romantic comedy film Hitch
Hitch (film)
Hitch is a 2005 romantic comedy film directed by Andy Tennant and starring Will Smith. The film, which was written by Kevin Bisch, co-stars Eva Mendes, Kevin James, and Amber Valletta. Smith plays a professional matchmaker who makes a living teaching men how to woo women...
. "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, also peaking at number one on the U.S. R&B singles chart. Its digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
and ringtone releases were each certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
. The song earned Amerie a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to female recording artists for quality R&B songs...
at the 2006 Grammy Awards. A remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
of "1 Thing" features rapper Eve
Eve (rapper)
Eve Jihan Jeffers , is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer and actress. Her first three albums have reached a total of over 8 million albums sold worldwide. She has also achieved success in fashion as she started a clothing line titled "Fetish." She won a Grammy Award in 2002 for the...
. The song ranked at number twenty-two on Rolling Stone's "100 Best Songs of the 2000s Decade" list.
Conception
In 2004, when working on her second album, Amerie enlisted the services of producer Rich Harrison, who had helped produce and write her first album. In May 2004, Harrison heard "Oh, Calcutta!" for the first time and began working on the beatBeat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
accompanying the ten-second back-and-forth breakdown between Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste
Ziggy Modeliste
Joseph Modeliste is an American drummer best known as a founding member of the funk group The Meters. Considered to be one of the most innovative, and highly acclaimed drummers ever to hail from New Orleans, Louisiana, Modeliste is a pioneer of second-line funk...
and guitarist Leo Nocentelli
Leo Nocentelli
Leo Nocentelli in New Orleans, Louisiana is one of the founding members of the New Orleans funk band, The Meters. He has been credited for popular funk songs such as "Cissy Strut", "People Say" and "Hey Pocky Way"...
. Harrison said he loved the work of the Meters, especially Modeliste, commenting, "Ziggy, he's crazy." He processed the way the breakdown could be "flipped", added a bongo drum
Bongo drum
Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
, a cowbell, and a ride cymbal
Ride cymbal
The ride cymbal is a standard cymbal in most drum kits. It maintains a steady rhythmic pattern, sometimes called a ride pattern, rather than the accent of a crash...
, and sent it to Amerie. According to Harrison, they wrote and finished the song in two to three hours.
Amerie's manager, Len Nicholson, felt the song was "the single
Lead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
" to release. When executives at Amerie's label, Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
/Sony Urban Music
Sony Urban Music
Sony Urban Music was a division of Sony BMG, active from 2004 to 2006, The division handled R&B, soul, and hip hop releases by artists nominally signed to Sony's Columbia and Epic labels...
, heard "1 Thing", they felt that the song's choruses needed to be "bigger". They recommended that more music be added to the percussion-focused beat, but Harrison and Amerie replied that adding more to the beat would overpower the song. Harrison and Amerie returned to the studio several times to rework the track. Each time they submitted a new version to the label, Columbia told them that the song sounded unfinished, but was unable to specify what should be changed. The label continued to refuse to release "1 Thing"; in Amerie's words, "People just weren't getting it".
Later in 2004, six months after recording "1 Thing", Amerie and Harrison leaked it to U.S. radio stations in an attempt to get it released officially. The response from DJs and listeners was positive, and it consequently received airplay across the country. Columbia Records attempted to suppress the song because it was an unofficial release, and because Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
(another artist on the label) had expressed interest in recording the song for her own album, Rebirth
Rebirth (Jennifer Lopez album)
"Rebirth" received an aggregate score of 52/100 from Metacritic, denoting "Mixed or average reviews". Allmusic gave the album four stars and stated that "Since it doesn't deviate from the blueprint she's followed on her first three albums, it's hard to call this record a literal creative rebirth,...
. Radio stations refused to retract the song from their playlists, and Columbia eventually began promoting "1 Thing" as a single, making it a last-minute addition to the Hitch soundtrack. Lopez settled on another Harrison-produced, funk-infused track, the Usher
Usher (entertainer)
Usher Terry Raymond IV , who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer-songwriter, and actor. He is considered around the world to be the reigning King of R&B. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100...
outtake "Get Right
Get Right
"Get Right" is a song recorded by American recording artist and actress Jennifer Lopez, taken from her fourth studio album, Rebirth...
".
Theme and sound
"1 Thing" was produced by Harrison and is built around a sampleSampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
of The Meters
The Meters
The Meters are an American funk band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Meters performed and recorded their own music from the late 1960s until 1977...
' 1970 version of the theme song from Oh! Calcutta!
Oh! Calcutta!
Oh! Calcutta! is an avant-garde theatrical revue, created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The show, consisting of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in London in 1970. It ran in London for over 3,900 performances, and in New York initially for 1,314...
, "Oh, Calcutta!", written by Samuel Walden. Built around The Meters' funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
y 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..."). Amerie said that the inspiration from the song came from a conversation she had with Harrison "about relationships and how there's always one thing that keeps you attracted to someone. No matter what they do or how they act, there's that one undeniable thing that keeps you coming back." She told Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
that the "one thing" "could be bringing flowers, or something more ... physical. People think I'm just this good girl, but there are other sides they don't see."
Despite being based on a New Orleans funk sample, the song belies a strong go-go influence. Harrison likened the two based on their heavy use of percussion and chant
Chant
Chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures Chant (from French chanter) is the rhythmic speaking or singing...
. Amerie stated, "You don't hear go-go outside of D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
... I was like, 'We have to do it in an up-tempo way because when you hear it on the radio in D.C., it's fast.' ... So it's a fresh sound for everybody but people in the D.C./Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
/Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
area. They [already] know what it is." The song is composed in the key of B major
B major
In music theory, B major is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps....
, moving at a tempo of 100 beats per minute in common time
Common Time
"Common Time" is a science fiction short story written by James Blish. It first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and has been reprinted several times: in the 1959 short-story collection Galactic Cluster; in The Testament of Andros ; in The Penguin Science Fiction...
. It uses four-measure
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
phrases
Phrase (music)
In music and music theory, phrase and phrasing are concepts and practices related to grouping consecutive melodic notes, both in their composition and performance...
with a I-III-II-I-VI chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
. The first four chords are played on the measure's downbeat, and off-beat syncopation
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
is used for the fifth chord.
Critical reception
"1 Thing" received acclaim from music critics. It received second place behind Kanye WestKanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
's "Gold Digger
Gold Digger
"Gold Digger" is a song recorded by American rapper Kanye West featuring guest vocals by Jamie Foxx. Released as the second single from West's second album, Late Registration, "Gold Digger" peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on September 6, 2005, becoming West's and Foxx's second...
" on the 2005 Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
. In its review of Touch, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
named the song "an early front-runner for song-of-the-summer status," also ranking it the number one single of 2005. Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
ranked "1 Thing" number 191 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". It praised the song's "cascading drums…and Amerie's frantic, top-of-her-range vocals". Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
stated that Harrison "knows something about horns, big glorious ascending heavenly anthemic horns" and "drums, huge sweaty riotous back-and-forth second-line old-school Clyde Stubblefield
Clyde Stubblefield
Clyde Stubblefield is a drummer best known for his work with James Brown.Stubblefield's recordings with James Brown are considered to be some of the standard-bearers for funk drumming, including the singles "Cold Sweat", "There Was A Time", "I Got The Feelin'", "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm...
drums." Calling it "a pretty fucking smart move smart move to wrap perfect pop around a question that stays open all night", Pitchfork listed the song as the second best single of 2005, behind Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons
Antony and the Johnsons is a music group presenting the work of Antony Hegarty and his collaborators.-Career:British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Antony's music through his Durtro label. The debut album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released...
' "Hope There's Someone". Allmusic described "1 Thing" as being "just as exciting" as "Oh, Calcutta!" for how it "[flails] all over the place with unbound joy". The song was listed at #32 on Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's top 500 songs of the 2000s.
Commercial performance
"1 Thing" became Amerie's most commercially successful song. In the United States, it debuted at the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
on February 12, 2005. The song gradually climbed the chart over a ten week period, peaking at number eight, and exited the chart after a total of twenty weeks. It received play from urban contemporary
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
stations and topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
in late April 2005. "1 Thing" also charted on the Rhythmic Top 40 and Pop 100
Pop 100
The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009...
, reaching numbers thirteen and twenty-eight respectively. The Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
awarded a gold certification to its digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
in October 2005, and another gold certification to its ringtone release in June 2006. The song received a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 48th Grammy Awards but lost to Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
's "We Belong Together".
The song was successful in the British Isles. On the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, "1 Thing" debuted at number four in May 2005. It was unable to reach a higher position and spent fourteen weeks on the chart. The song ended the year as the thirty-eighth best-selling single in the UK. In Ireland, the song debuted at number ten on the Irish Singles Chart
Irish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured...
. It climbed to number six in two weeks, remaining on the chart for another nine weeks. "1 Thing" was successful in continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
, where it peaked at number thirteen on the European Hot 100 Singles
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles
The European Hot 100 Singles has been compiled by Billboard and Music & Media magazine since March, 1984. The chart is based on national singles sales charts in 15 European countries: Austria, Belgium , Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden,...
chart. It reached the top ten in Denmark, Finland, and Norway; the top twenty in Belgium and the Netherlands; and the top forty in France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Video, remixes, covers, and other uses
The music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "1 Thing", directed by Chris Robinson
Chris Robinson (director)
Chris Robinson is an American film director working mostly with music videos and commercials. He has directed commercials for brands such as iPod, Coca Cola and Verizon and music videos for songs like "Fallin'" and "You Don't Know My Name" by Alicia Keys, "Roc Boys" by Jay-Z, the grammy nominated...
and Amerie, revealed to the public the singer's sexual side. It focuses on her dance routines, featuring her as a go-go dancer
Go-Go dancing
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at a discotheque. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s when women at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City began to get up on tables and dance the twist...
in various setups, intercut with footage from the film Hitch. Amerie co-directed the video with Chris Robinson
Chris Robinson (director)
Chris Robinson is an American film director working mostly with music videos and commercials. He has directed commercials for brands such as iPod, Coca Cola and Verizon and music videos for songs like "Fallin'" and "You Don't Know My Name" by Alicia Keys, "Roc Boys" by Jay-Z, the grammy nominated...
after she approached him with the video's concept in mind. The two collaborated again when directing the music video for the following single, "Touch".
The song's only official remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
features guest vocals from rapper Eve
Eve (rapper)
Eve Jihan Jeffers , is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer and actress. Her first three albums have reached a total of over 8 million albums sold worldwide. She has also achieved success in fashion as she started a clothing line titled "Fetish." She won a Grammy Award in 2002 for the...
, and an alternate version of the music video was created for it. Amerie that said she chose Eve to appear on the remix because most other female R&B singers were accompanied by male rappers, and that Eve "epitomizes that whole independent fearless female doing her thing. She's fashionable and very much a woman even though she definitely has a lot of attitude, the strength that most would attribute to men. ... With '1 Thing' being such an aggressive track, it was perfect to see two females really doing it." A second remix features Fabolous
Fabolous
John David Jackson , better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper of African American and Dominican descent. He grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Part of his early popularity arose from his hit single "Can't Deny It" in 2001, from his debut...
, a third features B.G.
B.G. (rapper)
Christopher Dorsey , better known by his stage name B.G. , is an American rapper and actor, from New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his music career signed to Cash Money Records in 1993 with Lil Wayne as half of the duo The B.G.'z...
, and little-known Torontonian producer Satya Rock arranged an extended underground remix to feature E-40
E-40
Earl Stevens , better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and investor from Vallejo, California. He is also part of the rap group The Click and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. His solo debut album, Federal, was released in November 1992, after The Click's debut...
, Method Man
Method Man
Clifford Smith , better known by his stage name Method Man is an American hip hop artist, record producer, actor and member of the hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He took his stage name from the 1979 film The Fearless Young Boxer, also known as Method Man. He is one half of the rap duo Method Man...
, Lyrics Born
Lyrics Born
Lyrics Born , is a Japanese American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and voice over announcer. He is also one half of the group Latyrx with Lateef the Truthspeaker.-History:...
, One Be Lo
One Be Lo
Nahshid Sulaiman better known by his stage name One Be Lo is an alternative hip hop artist from Pontiac, Michigan. He is well respected for being one half of the former rap duo Binary Star, and has released a number of well-received solo albums...
, Dres, Joe Budden
Joe Budden
-Early life:Budden was born in Spanish Harlem, but lived in Queens until he was 12 and from there moved to Jersey City, New Jersey. He is one of five boys...
, Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American hip-hop artist and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" ; his in Swahili means "true"...
, Beanie Sigel
Beanie Sigel
Dwight Grant , also known as Beanie Sigel, is a American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,most recently he was in talks with 50 Cent to sign with G-Unit Records and is a former member/artist of Dame Dash Music Group and Roc-A-Fella Records where he had formed a close association with rappers...
, Edan
Edan
Edan aka Edan Portnoy is an American alternative hip hop artist. He is an emcee, DJ and record producer.Edan is known for his unique/unlikely take on hip hop culture, where traditional rap songs are often skewed by 60's rock samples, tape echoes, and foreign language choruses, not to mention the...
, and MF DOOM
Daniel Dumile
Daniel Dumile is a hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM, where the "MF" stands for metal face, and for tracks he has produced, metal fingers...
. Siik remixed "1 Thing" by using instrumentals from a song by Japanese producer Nujabes
Nujabes
was a Japanese hip hop producer and DJ who recorded under the name , the reverse spelling of his name in Japanese order. Nujabes was also owner of the Shibuya record stores, T Records and Guinness Records and founder of the independent label Hydeout Productions....
. Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
listed Siik's remix seventh on its list of the top ten remixes of 2005 and commented that "it's enough to warrant a whole change of venue, from the sizzling pep of the dance floor to the silk luxury of the bedroom." Most of the unofficial remixes were released on mixtape
Mixtape
A Mix Tape or Mixed Tape is a compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto an audio Compact Cassette.A Mix Tape, which usually reflects the musical tastes of its compiler, can range from a casually selected list of favorite songs, to a conceptual mix of songs linked by a...
s, and Amerie said that she liked them all, particularly those by Fabolous, B.G., and Juelz Santana
Juelz Santana
LaRon Louis James , better known by his stage name Juelz Santana, is an American rapper, producer, and actor. He appeared on Cam'ron's 2002 singles, "Oh Boy" and "Hey Ma"...
.
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of...
sampled "1 Thing" during the second and last part of "Doo Wop (That Thing)
Doo Wop (That Thing)
"Doo Wop " is the debut single from American R&B/Hip-Hop artist Lauryn Hill. The song is taken from debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Written and produced by Hill, the song was released as the album's lead single in October 1998. It was Hill's first and only Billboard Hot 100...
" during live performances. Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are a British and Irish pop girl group based in London. They were created through the ITV1 talent show Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The group consists of Cheryl Cole , Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. They are signed to Fascination Records, a Polydor...
used the song as an interlude in performances of its 2004 single "Love Machine
Love Machine (Girls Aloud song)
"Love Machine" is a song performed by British all-female pop group Girls Aloud, taken from their second studio album What Will the Neighbours Say? . The song was written by Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins and his production team Xenomania, and produced by Higgins and Xenomania...
" during its 2006 Chemistry Tour
Chemistry Tour
The Chemistry Tour is Girls Aloud's second concert tour, in support of the group's third studio album Chemistry. Girls Aloud performed ten dates in various arenas across the United Kingdom, making it their shortest tour. The tour began in Nottingham on 22 May 2006 and concluded in London on 3 June...
. Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
member Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
showed the video for "1 Thing" during 24 Hours of Foo
24 Hours of Foo
__FORCETOC__24 Hours of Foo was a live special on MTV2 hosted by the rock band Foo Fighters, which aired on June 11 and 12, 2005. It was very similar in concept to 24 Hours of Love, a live special hosted by Courtney Love that the channel aired in 2002....
, during a segment in which each member of the band presented one song that they considered their "guilty pleasure". Alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Elbow
Elbow (band)
Elbow are an English rock band. They have played together since 1990 and recorded five studio albums, the most recent of which is Build a Rocket Boys!, released in March 2011...
covered the song in a comedic fashion for an August 2005 performance on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
's Live Lounge
Live Lounge
The Live Lounge is a segment on the British radio station BBC Radio 1. Originally hosted by Jo Whiley on her mid-morning radio show and now hosted by Fearne Cotton, it exhibits well-known artists usually performing one song of their own and one by another artist, in an acoustic format...
. "1 Thing" was used in the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
karaoke game SingStar R&B.
Track listings
CD 1- "1 Thing" (radio edit) – 4:02
- "1 Thing" (radio version featuring EveEve (rapper)Eve Jihan Jeffers , is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer and actress. Her first three albums have reached a total of over 8 million albums sold worldwide. She has also achieved success in fashion as she started a clothing line titled "Fetish." She won a Grammy Award in 2002 for the...
) – 3:34
CD 2
- "1 Thing" (radio edit) – 4:02
- "1 Thing" (remix featuring B.G.B.G. (rapper)Christopher Dorsey , better known by his stage name B.G. , is an American rapper and actor, from New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his music career signed to Cash Money Records in 1993 with Lil Wayne as half of the duo The B.G.'z...
) – 4:13 - "Talkin' to MeTalkin' To Me"Talkin' to Me" is a song by American R&B singer Amerie from her debut album, All I Have . Written and produced by Rich Harrison, it was released in 2003 as the album's second and final single solely in the United States, thus not being able to make the charts elsewhere...
" (Mark RonsonMark RonsonMark Daniel Ronson is an English DJ, guitarist, music producer, artist and co-founder of Allido Records. He currently works with his band under the music alias of Mark Ronson & The Business Intl....
Sunshine remix - no loop) – 4:49 - "1 Thing" (instrumental) – 3:59
- "1 Thing" (video) – 4:01
12" single
- Side A:
- "1 Thing" (album version) – 4:01
- "1 Thing" (instrumental) – 3:59
- "1 Thing" (a cappella) – 3:55
- Side B:
- "1 Thing" (remix featuring Eve) – 4:13
- "1 Thing" (remix featuring B.G.) – 4:13
Charts
| Chart (2005) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
13 |
| Austrian Singles Chart Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
54 |
| Belgian Singles Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (Flanders) |
16 |
| Danish Singles Chart Tracklisten Tracklisten is a Danish top 40 record chart that is presented every Thursday midnight at .The weekly Danish Singles Chart also known as Track Top-40 combines the 40 best selling tracks from legal music downloads and the sales of music singles on either CD or vinyl... |
9 |
| Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting... |
14 |
| European Hot 100 Singles Eurochart Hot 100 Singles The European Hot 100 Singles has been compiled by Billboard and Music & Media magazine since March, 1984. The chart is based on national singles sales charts in 15 European countries: Austria, Belgium , Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden,... |
13 |
| Finnish Singles Chart | 5 |
| French Singles Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
35 |
| German Singles Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
34 |
| German Black Chart | 8 |
| Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
6 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
12 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
10 |
| Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
30 |
| Swiss Singles Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
28 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
4 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
8 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009... |
28 |