In a departure from their previous albums, Going for the One, with the exception of the fifteen-minute "Awaken", features shorter and more direct songs without an overarching concept, and saw Yes record with new engineering personnel and cover artists.

The line-up during this time was lead vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, and keyboardist Patrick Moraz.

"[7] The decision was made after Rick Wakeman, who had left Yes in 1974 over differences surrounding their ambitious double album Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) and whom Moraz replaced, was invited to play on Going for the One as a session musician by Yes manager Brian Lane and business partner Alex Scott.

[8] Wakeman had pursued a successful solo career, but by mid-1976 he faced financial problems after his tour earlier in the year had met its minimal targets.

Having based Tales from Topographic Oceans and Relayer around extended or conceptual tracks, Yes decided to scale things back and record shorter and more accessible songs that critic and band biographer Chris Welch described as "user friendly".

[18] Anderson spoke about the group's direction at the time: "The album is a kind of celebration [...] Over the last two or three years we've been experimenting a lot and we're happy to have been given that chance.

"[19] In addition to recording at Mountain Studios, "Parallels" and "Awaken" features the church organ at St. Martin's in the town of Vevey[14] (4 miles away from Montreux).

[14][18] Its meaning was inspired from various ideas, including sport, horse racing, a film he once saw about "going down the Grand Canyon river on one of those rubber dinghies", and "the cosmic mind".

[14] The song tells the story of Roan, a sculptor whose wife dies in the winter and, while in grief of her death, carves a statue of her and she is brought back to life.

[14] Anderson gained the idea from the opera La bohème, with additional inspiration from the Greek mythological figure Pygmalion, who falls in love with a statue of a woman that he carved.

[21] "Parallels" was part of a collection of songs that Squire had written for his solo album Fish Out of Water (1975), but were left out due to the limited capacity of a vinyl record.

[20] Anderson's main source of inspiration for the song was the book The Singer: A Classic Retelling of Cosmic Conflict (1975) by Calvin Miller, which he had read during his time in Switzerland.

[24] The track features choral passages performed by the Richard Williams Singers, whose musical arrangements were directed by Wakeman, and the Ars Laeta of Lausanne, recorded at the Église des Planches, a church in Montreux.

[30] Howe claimed "a certain member" was no longer interested in working with Dean, which ended their collaboration until Drama (1980);[31] in his 2021 memoir All My Yesterdays he attributes that to a "misunderstanding".

[14] Richard Manning, a freelance artist who worked for Hipgnosis at the time, used double weighted photo paper to accommodate the triple gatefold.

He applied various techniques onto the design including a light blue dye wash, clouds added with an airbrush, and photomontage.

"[30] Howe was not "thrilled" at the design at the time of release, but said it worked well with the music and was pleased that Dean's logo was retained;[30] in 2021 he said he had "no hard feelings" about it.

[32] Melody Maker reporter and band biographer Chris Welch wrote about the cover: "Gone were the elaborate Roger Dean landscapes.

"A new accelerated, late-'70s escapism through the clean lines of Hipgnosis, who combine slick, futuristic geometric urban angles with a man in his birthday suit, perhaps urgently propelling the band forward, while simultaneously embracing roots".

[41] In the UK, the album reached silver certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 19 September 1977, signifying 60,000 copies sold and sales worth over £150,000.

[44] In his review for Los Angeles Times, Steve Pond believed the album succeeds because the band had "lowered rather than raised its sights.

He praised the "refreshing energy" the album brings, but noted their "kitchen-sink approach to song-writing, throwing everything into a composition but sometimes failing to smoothly integrate the disparate elements".

"[52] Billboard gave a positive review, noting the band "is clearly going all out here to create its most ambitious and awesome work yet", and picked the title track, "Wonderous Stories", and "Awaken" as the best cuts.

He praised every track, calling "Wonderous Stories" a tune that allowed the group "to fly without really trying" and the closing moments of "Awaken", in particular, "quite beautiful ... the kind of music making now almost a lost art".

Its five tracks still retain mystical, abstract lyrical images, and the music is grand and melodic, the vocal harmonies perfectly balanced by the stinging guitar work of Steve Howe, Wakeman's keyboards, and the solid rhythms of Alan White and Chris Squire".

[45] Paul Stump's 1997 History of Progressive Rock noted Going for the One was a surprise triumph for Yes, achieving both critical and commercial success despite arriving in the middle of the "summer of Punk" and after a nearly three-year hiatus from the studio.

He singled out "Turn of the Century" ("a masterstroke of textural finesse") and "Parallels" ("a bullying piece of music-making which careers along with intimidating speed and violence, culminating contrapuntally in one of Yes's most adrenalized climaxes yet") as the highlights.

[55] The stage set had a much simpler design compared to the band's previous three tours, which centred around a series of illuminated shapes which gave a three-dimensional effect.

[56][17] Anderson was illuminated in multiple colours as he sung an excerpt of "The Beautiful Land" from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.

[65] All tracks arranged and produced by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, and Rick Wakeman.