One | Chords + Lyrics (no capo)
Intro
||: Cm | Cm :||
Verse 1
||: Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 :||
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.
Two can be as bad as one, it’s the loneliest number since the number one.
Instrumental
| Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 |
Verse 2
||: Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 :||
“No” is the saddest experience you’ll ever know.
Yes, it’s the saddest experience you’ll ever know.
Because one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know.
Bridge 1
| Cm | Cm7 | Eb | Ebmaj7 | Eb7 | Ebadd9 Eb |
It’s just no good anymore since you went away.
| Ab | Abm | Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 |
Now I spend my time just making rhymes of yesterday.
Verse 3
Because one is the loneliest number, that you’ll ever do.
One is the loneliest number, that you’ll ever know.
One is the loneliest number, one is the loneliest number.
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.
One is the loneliest number much, much worse than two.
One is the number divided by two.
Outro
||: Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 :||
One.
One is the loneliest number.
One | Chords + Lyrics (capo 3)
Intro
||: Am | Am :||
Verse 1
||: Am | Am7 | Am6 | Amb6 :||
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.
Two can be as bad as one, it’s the loneliest number since the number one.
Instrumental
| Am | Am7/G | Am/F# | Am/F |
Verse 2
||: Am | Am7/G | Am/F# | Am/F :||
“No” is the saddest experience you’ll ever know.
Yes, it’s the saddest experience you’ll ever know.
Because one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know.
Bridge 1
| Am | Am7/G | C | Cmaj7 | C7 | Cadd9 C |
It’s just no good anymore since you went away.
| F | Fm | Am | Am7/G | Am/F# | Am/F |
Now I spend my time just making rhymes of yesterday.
Verse 3 (as verse 2)
Because one is the loneliest number, that you’ll ever do.
One is the loneliest number, that you’ll ever know.
One is the loneliest number, one is the loneliest number.
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.
One is the loneliest number much, much worse than two.
One is the number divided by two.
Outro
||: Am | Am7 | Am6 | Amb6 :||
One.
One is the loneliest number.
One’s Chords: Learn the progressions
The chords of Harry Nilsson‘s One present a great opportunity to understand more about harmony.
Played in a band with a bass player, you don’t need a capo, you can think of One’s chords as if in the key of Cm and play the descending extensions like this throughout:
||: Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 :||
A modal interchange is going on here as no mode can have both a 6th and b6, so we are temporarily switching from Aeolian to Dorian.
Do compare this chord progression to Sunny Afternoon and Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
The bridge temporarily resolves to chord I before it starts manipulating the extensions here as well, like this:
| Cm | Cm7 | Eb | Ebmaj7 | Eb7 | Ebadd9 Eb |
| Ab | Abm | Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 |
Eb is chord I, Ab is IV, Abm is IVm, ironically, the saddest or perhaps even the loneliest chord.
On the acoustic guitar, playing this tune on our own (capo 3), we can’t just play the extensions as I’ve just described above, or at least not for long, but we can start like that, meaning you’ll play this:
||: Am | Am7 | Am6 | Amb6 :||
Soon, this won’t feel like enough of a part. What we want to do is move that descending concept down into the bass as that’s what the bass player plays, like this:
||: Am | Am7/G | Am/F# | Am/F :||
Make sure you can see how the extensions and bass line are in fact the same notes. We could have changed the chords to spell this instead:
||: Am | Am7/G | F#m7b5 | Fmaj7 :||
Make sure you can see how this is the same thing!
The bridge, thinking in the key of Am becomes this:
| Am | Am7/G | C | Cmaj7 | C7 | Cadd9 C |
| F | Fm | Am | Am7/G | Am/F# | Am/F |
It’s probably easier for you to see how C is chord I, F is IV and how Fm (IVm) is the loneliest chord you’ll ever see in this key.
There is TAB for how to play all this, both in a band (Cm) and as the loneliest acoustic guitarist (key of Am with a capo on fret 3).
Here’s a link to that part of the lesson: One (Harry Nilsson) – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
After practising with the TAB (no capo and with a capo) and playing along with Harry, all you need is this simple chord chart to bring to the gig.
One Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: One Chord Chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: One iReal Pro.
Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key which is what you want to do if you play One’s chords on your own.
One was Harry Nilsson’s only big hit that he wrote, the rest were covers!
Known as The Beatles‘ favourite American songwriter, it is perhaps ironic how his biggest hits were covers. I’m mainly thinking of Everybody’s Talkin’ and Without You.
The supersad One is not a party starter, but instead, it could be a tune you could learn for an audition or maybe a credible cover for an album.
To me, there are a lot of great harmonic lessons here (detailed above) but also the production which feels so organic and real, I can listen to this on repeat all day.
The bass is panned to one side and the strings interplay with the vocal fantastically. The electric piano being panned to the opposite side of the bass works so well.
Played on just one guitar, you can vary your part all the way through to mimic the way the arrangement is constantly changing making it a great tune to gig, unfortunately, it’s perhaps a bit too sad for that world…
One’s Chords | Related Pages
One | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play One by Harry Nilsson using TAB and chord analysis.
| Cm | Cm7 | Cm6 | Cmb6 |
One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Harry Nilsson tunes
Known as the 5th Beatle, Harry Nilsson was a singer-songwriter from New York who moved to L.A. to pursue a recording career.
Harry is best known for the tunes Everybody’s Talkin’, Coconut, One, Without You, and Spaceman.
Harry Nilsson on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about One’s chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.