Songfacts®:

• Ting Ting Jules De Martino told Rhapsody about this song, which is part of We Started Nothing, the debut album from The Ting Tings: "'Be the One' is my favorite track on the album. The sound of it is probably the closest song we've got to sounding like a Manchester band. It just has a very poignant, simple lyric and structure to it. I can play this tune any time of the day and it just sets me into its own mood immediately. In Manchester, at the time, Katie (White) and I were going to a lot of exhibits and galleries and every time we'd go out, we'd hear 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' by Joy Division. It seemed to be following us around. We went to an exhibition and someone exhibited their work with this track backing their performance. There were people busking it in the streets. Every time we went to a club, it was being played. Every time we turned on the radio, it would be playing. It was constant. I think when we got in the studio it really drove the sound of this song."
• "Be The One" endured in the Ting Tings' canon and remained in their setlists years on, long after they split from Columbia Records and went independent.
  
  "This is a lovely song," lead singer Katie White told Songfacts in 2025. "I wore rain Macs around Manchester and we were reaching out into smoother song creativity. Smiths and Manchester bands were creeping into our existing fascination with Talking Heads and Blondie."