Written by Amerie and Rich Harrison and produced by the latter, the song is influenced by go-go rhythms and prominently samples the Meters' 1970 funk recording of "Oh, Calcutta!

Its digital download and ringtone releases were each certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

for the first time and began working on the beat accompanying the ten-second back-and-forth breakdown between Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste and guitarist Leo Nocentelli.

[1] Amerie's manager and eventual husband, Len Nicholson, felt the song was "the single" to release.

[2] When executives at Amerie's label, Columbia/Sony Urban Music, heard "1 Thing", they felt that the song's choruses needed to be "bigger".

[1] Each time they submitted a new version to the label, Columbia told them that the song sounded unfinished, but was unable to specify what should be changed.

[1] Later in 2004, six months after recording "1 Thing", Amerie and Harrison leaked it to US radio stations in an attempt to get it released officially.

[4] Radio stations refused to retract the song from their playlists, and Columbia eventually began promoting "1 Thing" as a single, making it a last-minute addition to the Hitch soundtrack.

[5] "1 Thing" was produced by Harrison and is built around a sample of the Meters' 1970 version of the theme song from the musical Oh!

Built around The Meters' funky beat-driven percussion, "1 Thing" finds Amerie lamenting an aspect of a relationship that keeps her satisfied.

In its review of Touch, Rolling Stone named the song "an early front-runner for song-of-the-summer status", also ranking it the number one single of 2005.

[9] The song received second place behind Kanye West's "Gold Digger" on the 2005 Pazz & Jop list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by Robert Christgau.

[11] Calling it "a pretty fucking smart move to wrap perfect pop around a question that stays open all night", Pitchfork listed the song as the second best single of 2005, behind Antony and the Johnsons' "Hope There's Someone".

"[16] The song received a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 48th Grammy Awards, but lost to Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together".

[22] In the United Kingdom, "1 Thing" debuted and peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart in late May 2005.

[27] The music video for "1 Thing", co-directed by Chris Robinson and Amerie, publicly revealed the singer's sexual side.

[2] It focuses on her dance routines, featuring her as a go-go dancer in various setups, intercut with footage from the film Hitch.

When she sang, “memories keep ringing bells” I was thinking of the state of our union today, the turmoil in our society, and where we’d been before—I was musing on our involvement in the Middle East, Latin America, Vietnam.

[33] Additionally, alternative rock band Elbow covered the song in a comedic fashion for an August 2005 performance on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

[36] It has also been placed in the soundtracks for many video games, notably Saints Row 2 and Grand Theft Auto V.[citation needed] The song's only official remix features guest vocals from rapper Eve,[37] and an alternate version of the music video was created for it.