"The One" is a song by American boy band

Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida. The ...

. It was released on May 1, 2000, as the fourth and final single from their third studio album, ''

Millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...

'' (1999). It reached the top 10 in Canada, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and it peaked at number 30 on the US '' Billboard'' Hot 100. The song was used as the opening theme for the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series '' Hanada Shōnen Shi''.

Background

A sneak preview of the song was released on the '' Selections from A Night Out with the Backstreet Boys'' CD on November 17, 1998, and had a slightly different sound to it, while another preview was shown at the end of Britney Spears' album '' ...Baby One More Time'' (under the title "I'll Be the One") two months later. In a 2001 interview on '' The View'', the group stated they never really intended "The One" as their fourth single. The group held a poll on

TRL TRL or trl may refer to: Arts * Temporary Residence Limited, a record label * ''Total Request Live'', a former MTV show * TRL Awards (''Total Request Live''), an Italian music award Libraries * Tampines Regional Library, a regional library in Ta ...

allowing fans to choose the next single from their album, and after Nick Carter himself called in and voted for "The One", his large fan-base followed. The rest of the group had preferred the song "Don't Want You Back", which had been leading in votes up to that point.

Music video

Background

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was directed by Chris Hafner and Kevin Richardson in April 2000. Most of the video is in widescreen format, though the within

letterboxed Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes (black bars) above and below ...

black area are pulses of color based on the brightness of the shots. The choruses mainly feature two different clips side-by-side, further letterboxing the video. During the

breakdown Breakdown may refer to: Breaking down *Breakdown (vehicle), failure of a motor vehicle in such a way that it cannot be operated *Chemical decomposition, also called chemical breakdown, the breakdown of a substance into simpler components *Decompo ...

before the final choruses, the normal letterboxed image is split horizontally into four segments and different clips flash between them with camera flash effects on the borderlines.

Synopsis

The video opened with a dedication to the Boys' fans, crew, band, and dancers. The video itself opens with a

time-lapse Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ...

shot of

Gainbridge Fieldhouse Gainbridge Fieldhouse is an indoor arena located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It opened in November 1999 to replace Market Square Arena. The arena is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and ...

(then named Conseco Fieldhouse), home of the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...

, being converted from a basketball court to the band's stage for the

Into the Millennium Tour The Into the Millennium Tour was the fourth concert tour by the Backstreet Boys in support of their third studio album, ''Millennium'' (1999). The tour comprised 123 in 84 cities spanning three legs. The North American legs featured concerts at a ...

, which is reversed at the end of the video. The remainder of the video is made up of clips of performance footage from the tour, and less notably, a number of panned still images and off-stage clips from behind the scenes, or from other promotional appearances done for ''Millennium''. The footage is not specifically related to "The One", though there are a few clips of the band synced to the lyrics. A soundtrack of screaming fans was added to the album version of the song to give a live feeling to the song. Concert footage was from the entire tour, including a concert in the

Bryce Jordan Center The Bryce Jordan Center is a 15,261-seat multi-purpose arena in University Park, Pennsylvania, United States, on the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania State University. The arena opened in 1996 and is the largest such venue between ...

, and the basketball arena at

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

. There also appears in the video at segment of the Backstreet Boys playing basketball in Michigan State jerseys. This is because concert footage was also taken from when the band played the Jack Breslin Center.

Track listings

UK CD single # "The One" (album version) – 3:46 # "

Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" is a song by American boy band Backstreet Boys, taken from their third studio album, ''Millennium'' (1999). It was written by Max Martin and Herbie Crichlow, with production by Martin and Kristian Lundin. ...

" (Soul Solution Mixshow edit) – 3:40 # " Larger than Life" ( Jack D. Elliot radio mix) – 3:50 # "The One" (video) UK cassette single and European CD single # "The One" (album version) – 3:46 # "The One" (instrumental) – 3:46 European 7-inch single :A. "The One" (album version) – 3:46 :B. "Larger than Life" (Jack D. Elliot radio mix) – 3:50 European and Australian maxi-CD single # "The One" (album version) – 3:46 # "The One" (instrumental) – 3:46 # "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" (Soul Solution Mixshow edit) – 3:40 # "Larger than Life" (Jack D. Elliot radio mix) – 3:50 Japanese CD single # "The One" (album version) – 3:46 # "The One" (instrumental) – 3:46 # "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" (Soul Solution Mixshow edit) – 3:40 # "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" (

Jason Nevins Jason Nevins (born December 15, 1972) is an American songwriter, record producer and remixer, who is most widely known for his pop and dance productions, including his multi-platinum, multi-million selling production of " It's Like That" by Ameri ...

crossover remix) – 3:55 # "Larger than Life" (Jack D. Elliot radio mix) – 3:50

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:One, The 1999 songs 2000 singles Backstreet Boys songs Jive Records singles Song recordings produced by Max Martin Songs written by Brian Littrell Songs written by Max Martin