This One

Song facts

“This One” is a track from 1989 album “Flowers In The Dirt“.

From Wikipedia:

“This One” is a single from Paul McCartney’s 1989 album, Flowers in the Dirt. The song reached number 18 on the UK singles chart. It also reached number 8 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40 in Austria, number 31 in the Dutch Top 40 in the Netherlands and number 40 on the Media Control Charts in Germany.

The single includes two songs recorded during the sessions for CHOBA B CCCP album: “I Wanna Cry” and “I’m In Love Again“. The later appeared in a slightly edited form than the version released on 1991 international edition of CHOBA B CCCP.

Like other songs from Flowers in the Dirt, despite the song’s modest chart success, to date it has not been included on any McCartney compilation album.

Reception

Allmusic called the song “lovely“. Rolling Stone opined:”This One,” likewise, extends its cute, lyrical conceit for too long and winds up taxing the listener’s patience“.

Track listings

This song was released as a 7″ single, a 12″ maxi-single, and a CD single. All songs written by Paul McCartney exept where noted

Paul McCartney in “Club Sandwich 52, Summer 1989“:

The song is basically a love song – did I ever say I love you? And if I didn’t it’s because I was waiting for a better moment… ‘There could never be a better moment than this one…’, and the words ‘this one’ kept coming back to me as ‘this swan’, and I got off on that… The image… was like one of those Hare Krishna posters that I used to see a lot in India…this little blue god…Krishna, who’s riding on this swan floating over this beauti-fully clear pond with lovely pink lilies on it. It’s a very spiritual, tranquil picture, and although I don’t subscribe to any particular religion, I draw on the nice moments from a lot of them.

Paul McCartney, in People Music, March 24, 2017:

“That’s completely silly wordplay. My dad was very into words and crosswords and things, and so was I at school. And then becoming a songwriter I was interested in wordplay. So when I heard someone say, ‘This one,’ I thought it could also be ‘this swan.’ I liked this image of a swan, like in Hindu art—Krishna and the swan gliding over water lilies. I was attracted to that image, so that’s what it became, using the two meanings of the word. And then the video by Tim Pope turned out that way, too.”

Last updated on April 29, 2021

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