The History and Meaning Behind “One” by U2

To the outside world, U2 was triumphant at the end of the 1980s. The band wrapped up the decade by releasing The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum, two albums that sold more than 10 million copies apiece. The Irish musicians toured the globe, played shows with blues icon B.B. King, made a full-length film, topped the Billboard Hot 100 with back-to-back singles, and absolutely dominated the Grammy Awards. For a young band that began the 1980s in total obscurity, U2 had become one of the era’s biggest acts. 

Within the band’s ranks, though, the mood wasn’t so joyous. Rattle and Hum might’ve been a commercial success, but it was also the closest U2 had come to a critical flop. Audiences didn’t know what to make of an Irish band’s tribute to American roots music. At best, it was a salute to classic influences; at worst, it was cultural appropriation. Whether the criticism was truly deserved, U2 stumbled into the 1990s in a cloud of uncertainty. The guys knew they needed to reinvent themselves; they just didn’t know how. 

A Change of Scenery

Searching for new horizons, the group headed to Berlin in October 1990. The Berlin Wall had fallen, and Germany was in the process of reuniting. U2 hoped to tap into whatever spirit was floating through the air, which is why the guys set up shop at Hansa Studios, where David Bowie had recorded records like Low and Heroes a dozen or so years earlier.

At first, progress was slow. Bono and The Edge were hoping to explore some of the new sounds they’d been hearing in Europe, like Madchester and electronic dance music. Adam Clayton, the only member of U2 to actually frequent dance clubs, told his bandmates they didn’t know what they were talking about. Meanwhile, Larry Mullen Jr. sat at his drum kit, worried about all the drum machines that Achtung Baby‘s producers had brought into the studio.

[RELATED: U2 Set to Release Deluxe 30th Anniversary Reissue of ‘Achtung Baby’]

New Song, New Sound

“One” saved the band, offering the boys a new path into a new decade. While working on the bridge of a song that later became “Mysterious Ways,” the group stumbled across a different chord progression. The mood in the recording studio quickly changed. Inspired, U2 expanded that progression and finished the framework of “One”—including chord structure, melody, and rough arrangement—in 15 minutes. Bono’s lyrics were written nearly as fast, and co-producer Daniel Lanois helped the band record a demo of the song.

Achtung Baby‘s other producer, Brian Eno, flew to Berlin several weeks later and suggested a number of changes to the song, resulting in multiple months of overdubs and revisions. The final version of “One” was finished in September 1991, on the final night of Achtung Baby‘s mixing sessions. 

The song’s melody is beautiful, with a melancholic verse that gives way to a bright, bold chorus. But it’s Bono’s songwriting that truly elevates “One.” As a lyricist, he taps into the complex and contradictory network of feelings—including resentment, mutual dependency, unity, and disharmony—that surrounded not only the band during those autumn months of 1990, but Berlin, too. Talking to the Los Angeles Times in September 1993, Bono initially balked at the request to explain the song’s meaning, saying, “I didn’t grow up in the tradition of pop songwriters who feel it is essential to make everything clear to the listener. All of us in the band were always interested in abstraction…letting things be out of focus.”

“We Have No Choice”

In the same conversation, though, he ultimately came clean. “It is a song about coming together, but it’s not the old hippie idea of ‘Let’s all live together,’” he said of “One.” “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.”

That means “One” isn’t a song about oneness after all. It’s a song about the differences that keep us separate, as well as the obligation we have to work together despite those differences. In the book U2 by U2, Bono elaborates on that idea. “I’m still disappointed when people hear the chorus line as ‘got to’ rather than ‘we get to carry each other,’” he says. “Like it or not, the only way out of here is if I give you a leg up the wall and you pull me after you. There’s something very unromantic about that.”

Unromantic, perhaps. “One” sure is beautiful, though, featuring one of the most soul-stirring bridges in U2’s entire catalog—the section that begins with Love is a temple, love a higher law—and a vocal performance that peaks during the final moments of the song, where Bono leaps into his falsetto for some wordless, stratospheric crooning.

Mary J. Blige covered “One” in 2006 and took the song to different heights, but the definitive version can be heard on Achtung Baby, where U2 performed “One” like a band that had been to the brink, peered over, and chose togetherness over whatever lay beyond the ledge. 

Photo by Kurt Iswarienko