celebrating oneness part 2

Of course as soon as I finished celebrating oneness (where all one bands songs sound like one song with different lyrics) I immediately started thinking about songs names One.

and.

After kind of slamming U2 for their late career oneness sound I do want to give them credit for possibly one of the greatest duets of all time on one of the greatest songs of all time (and I actually believe this duet version took an already great song and put it in a different stratosphere).

One with U2 and Mary J Blige. Bono has a mediocre voice at best but when ‘in range’ is perfect for that anthemic U2 sound. and Mary J has  a set if the best pipes in the business. This girl can sing when she wants to. The combination of these two on this song is brilliant. And spine tingling in the moment. This song is absolutely the best in celebrating one of the Oneness songs.

U2 & Mary J: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpDQJnI4OhU&feature=related

Now.

In researching One it is possibly the least creative song title available (if you take all iterations of ‘one’ like ‘the one,’ or ‘you’re the one’ or … well … you get it … and there are literally a gazillion songs of those) but there are surprisingly few (or less than you would think) “One” songs.

Of course most of them are by musicians I have never heard of (and I assume they suck because I don’t know who they are … okay … well … I was too lazy to research them all so it was easier for me to just say this).

But I was surprised by the number of them are by well-known musicians (and have been snuck onto albums you know but are deep on a track list).

I guess I would assume an artist would use “One” as an epic song title for something they felt they had written which was … well … epic.  Unfortunately it is not so.

Most One songs are pretty pedantic and dwell on sappy emotional crap.

One by U2 is truly an exception.

So.

My list of some ‘serious’ One songs. I don’t necessarily mean radically good songs but certainly a variety of okay good songs.

Of course I am biased and Aimee Mann’s remake of Three Dog Night’s One (which she did for the awesome movie Magnolia) is probably my #2 One song. Oh. And Three Dog Night’s original is great.

Ghostface Killah has a great hip hop song (with absolutely no melody or lyrical sense but is an awesome hip hop sound).

Alanis Morrisette’s One is actually a pretty amazing showcase for her live performance vocal talent. Oh. And of course the Bee Gees. I had to throw in an Arsenio Hall performance of Bee Gees singing One.

Enjoy.

Here is my short list:
One – U2
One – Alanis Morissette http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBefMFTQN0I&feature=related
One – Creed
One – Ghostface Killah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niklgPHPTAs

One – Aimee Mann (Three Dog Night remake)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5DHquP1HWU&feature=related

and  a nice live long version (if you have never seen aimee in concert her voice is this clear all the time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Gh-ZHGJRc&feature=related

One – Metallica
One – Bustah Rhymes featuring Erykah Badu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RLAsI7Cbg8

One – Ringo Starr
One – The BeeGees 1989 (on aresenio hall show to boot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10JvAzB2JMQ&feature=related

Whew. Finding songs named “Two” (all by itself) is tougher.

Written by Bruce