Songfacts®:

• Some of you are fortunate enough to have found "The One" - the only person on earth you are meant to be with. Others are still searching for that elusive true love. Here, Elton John believes he's found that person where "the pieces finally fit."
• Elton released "The One" as the lead single from the album of the same name on May 25, 1992. It reached the Top 10 of both the UK and US singles charts and topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. It also reached #1 in Canada and Portugal.
• The Bible tells us after Cain killed his brother Abel, he was banished by God from Eden to wander the world as a nomad, alone and unloved. Eventually, in the land of Nod, Cain got married and had children.
  
  For each man in his time is Cain
  Until he walks along the beach
  And sees his future in the water
  
  John's regular lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote the words. According to the singer, he felt an intense connection to Taupin's lyrics for the song because of his personal circumstances around the time of recording The One. In particular, he identified with the line about Cain, who feared he'd be alone until he took a walk along the beach and saw his future soulmate swimming in the water.
• So why did this lyric especially speak to Elton? The One was John's first album project since receiving treatment for drug and alcohol addictions and bulimia in 1990. He'd adopted a new, simpler lifestyle where all that was missing was a soulmate. The year after he released the album, the pop superstar found "the one" when he began a relationship with the Canadian David Furnish, a former advertising executive and later, filmmaker. It was John's first openly gay relationship and his first of any kind since he married the German recording engineer Renate Blauel in 1984.
• Elton John recorded The One at Studio Guillaume Tell in Paris, France, from November 1991 to March 1992. It was his sixth album recorded in France, dating back to Honky Château in 1972.
• Chris Thomas, who also worked with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The Sex Pistols, sat in the producer's chair. Thomas first worked with John in 1969, producing songs for The Bread & Beer Band, a group of studio musicians he played in. The following year, he programmed John's 1970 eponymous album. Thomas produced eight albums for John in total in the 1980s and '90s.
• According to the liner notes, the musicians are:
  
  Elton John: keyboards and vocals
  Olle Romo: drums, percussion and programming
  Davey Johnstone and Adam Seymour: guitars
  Guy Babylon: keyboards and programming
  Mark Taylor: keyboards
  Pino Palladino: bass
• Russell Mulcahy directed the video, which shows John on a reflector and a mirror while performing the song. Mulcahy directed many of Elton's videos, including another The One track, "Simple Life."
• Elton John and Britney Spears got together in 2022 for "Hold Me Closer," a mashup of "The One" with "Tiny Dancer."