ONE LOVE

Unofficial studio version


One, two, three, four

One girl, one love
One dream in our heart
Two hearts as one
One hope, never to be torn apart

Yeah, come on baby, rock me the way I love
Shake me darling, shake me, don't let me go
You're the one, yeah, you're the one for me

One dream, one dream
Is all, is all I need
One reason to believe
In you, I've found the thing I need

Yeah, come on baby, rock me the way I love
Shake me darling, come on, don't let me go
You're the one, yeah, you're the one for me

Once I was alone
So alone, so all alone
Then you came along
With a love you said I could call home

Yeah, come on baby, rock me the way I love
Shake me darling, come on, don't let me go
You're the one, yeah, you're the one for me

Come on baby, rock me all night long
I've been searching for you for so long
You're the one, yeah, you're the one for me

Ooh-oohhh
Ooh-oohhh, ooh-ooh-oohhh
Ooh-oohhh, ooh-ooh-oohhh
Ooh-oohhh, ooh-ooh-oohhh
Ooh-oohhh
Ooh-oohhh

Whoa
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa


Info

ONE LOVE is an unreleased song written by Bruce Springsteen. It was considered for release as a B-side in 1983 had an album seen the light that year. See the "Unreleased 1982 and 1983 Albums" section below for more details. The above lyrics are for the only studio take of ONE LOVE in circulation.


The song appeared in a 2022 filing at the United States Copyright Office. See the "Copyright Filings" section below form more details.

Studio Recording

According to Sony's logs of Bruce Springsteen's studio sessions, ONE LOVE was recorded on 19 Jan 1983 at Thrill Hill West, Springsteen's home studio in Los Angeles, CA. The studio take in circulation was most probably cut on 19 Jan 1983.

Springsteen recorded more than an album's worth of songs by himself during this period. He played all the instruments himself, with the help of a drum machine only, and overdubbing was used to create the final product.

Unreleased 1982 and 1983 Albums

Bruce Springsteen recorded a bulk of solo demoes at his Colts Neck, NJ home studio in early January 1982. His intention was to demonstrate them to The E Street Band when they enter the studio later that month so that the recording sessions for their next album would progress faster. These studio sessions came to a halt in May when Springsteen decided to release Nebraska, an album consisting of the original solo demoes without the band treatment.

For the next month or two the focus turned to overseeing final preparations of Nebraska. However, Springsteen had already made up his mind that a few of the January home demoes should be on an E Street Band album, in addition to some more songs he recorded with the band when they were in studio. Mixing of the band material continued through June, alongside the Nebraska tracks. In fact, Springsteen even considered putting both albums out as a double record. "I had these two extremely different recording experiences going," Springsteen told Mark Hagen in an interview for Mojo magazine published in January 1999. "I was going to put them out at the same time as a double record. I didn't know what to do."

In his 2012 book E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Clinton Heylin revealed that the track sequence for the band album was compiled (see list below). These tracks were all recorded with the E Street Band between January and May 1982 at The Power Station and The Hit Factory in New York City, NY.

Side 1:

  • BORN IN THE U.S.A.
  • MURDER INCORPORATED (spelled "Murder Inc.")
  • DOWNBOUND TRAIN
  • I'M GOIN DOWN (titled "Down Down Down")
  • GLORY DAYS
  • MY LOVE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN (titled "My Love")

Side 2:

  • WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY
  • DARLINGTON COUNTY
  • FRANKIE
  • I'M ON FIRE
  • THIS HARD LAND

In early October 1982, soon after the release of Nebraska, Springsteen moved to Los Angeles where he spent much of the following five months. He had recording engineer Mike Batlan install a home recording studio at his house in Los Angeles where he recorded more than an album's worth of songs over the early months of 1983, playing all the instruments himself except for a drum machine.

According to Brucebase, Springsteen has mentioned that sometime in early 1983 he also gave consideration to releasing the best of the Los Angeles home studio recordings as a thematic follow-up to Nebraska. This album concept is not known to have ever been given a working title because Springsteen quickly abandoned the concept.

A document from around March 1983 reveals that at the time Springsteen briefly considered releasing an album tentatively titled "Murder Incorporated" and consisting of eleven tracks. The document also lists six additional tracks that apparently were selected for B-sides. All these tracks were cut during two phases of recording sessions, the early 1982 sessions with the band and the early 1983 solo sessions.

Album:

  • BORN IN THE U.S.A.
  • MURDER INCORPORATED (spelled "Murder Inc.")
  • DOWNBOUND TRAIN
  • GLORY DAYS
  • THIS HARD LAND (titled "Hard Land")
  • MY LOVE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN (titled "My Love")
  • JOHNNY BYE-BYE (titled "Bye Bye Johnny")
  • FRANKIE
  • I'M GOIN DOWN (titled "Down Down Down")
  • WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY (spelled "Workin' on the Highway")
  • I'M ON FIRE (written between parentheses)

B-sides:

Springsteen disregarded the album and opted for another round of recording session. These sessions took place between April and June 1983 at The Hit Factory in New York City, NY, and featured the E Street Band, apparently minus Steven Van Zandt who was busy at the time recording his second solo album and touring with his own group. Following this third phase of recording sessions major mixing sessions took place and some in CBS were talking of a possible of a pre-Christmas release. In his book, Clinton Heylin revealed a track sequence for a band album that was compiled on 26-27 Jul 1983 (see list below). This new track sequence comprised of three songs carried over from the 1982 sequence, four from the early 1983, sessions and five from the recent E Street Band sessions.

Side 1:

Side 2:

As had been the case in March, Springsteen disregarded the album again and opted for another round of recording session. This final round was scattered from autumn 1983 to the early months of 1984.

Copyright Filings

In 2022, a "Recorded Document" consisting of 539 Bruce Springsteen "musical works" was filed at the United States Copyright Office. The two filings are related to Springsteen's late 2021 deal with Sony Music in which he sold the masters of his entire catalog and the coinciding music publishing rights. They show the transfer of the songs from Bruce Springsteen to Thrill Hill Music LLC and then from Thrill Hill Music LLC to Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC and Asbury Boss LLC. Thrill Hill Music LLC and Asbury Boss LLC are limited liability companies incorporated in September 2021 and October 2021 respectively and likely created for the deal.

Copyright entry #1:
Type of Work: Recorded Document
Document Number: V15007D317
Date of Recordation: 2022-05-13
Entire Copyright Document: V15007 D317 P1-13
Date of Execution: 01Nov21; 01Mar22
Title: 100 Miles From Jackson & 538 other titles; Musical Work.
Notes: Assignment.
Party 1: Bruce Springsteen
Party 2: Thrill Hill Music LLC
Links: List of titles
Names: Springsteen, Bruce | Thrill Hill Music LLC
Copyright entry #2:
Type of Work: Recorded Document
Document Number: V15007D318
Date of Recordation: 2022-05-13
Entire Copyright Document: V15007 D318 P1-14
Date of Execution: 22Nov21; 22Nov21
Title: 100 Miles From Jackson & 538 other titles; Musical Work.
Notes: Exhibit 10.1 Assignment
Party 1: Thrill Hill Music LLC
Party 2: Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC; Asbury Boss, LLC
Links: List of titles
Names: Thrill Hill Music LLC | Sony Music Publishing (US) LLC | Asbury Boss, LLC

Bootleg Releases

This version of ONE LOVE can be found on several bootlegs, including The Lost Masters Vol. 16 (Labour Of Love) [track 02] and The Lost Masters Essential Collection Vol. 1 (Labour Of Love) [disc 2, track 14].

Bruce Springsteen -- The Lost Masters Vol. 16 (Labour Of Love)
Bruce Springsteen -- The Lost Masters Vol. 16 (Labour Of Love)
Bruce Springsteen -- The Lost Masters Essential Collection Vol. 1 (Labour Of Love)
Bruce Springsteen -- The Lost Masters Essential Collection Vol. 1 (Labour Of Love)

Live History

As far as it's known, Bruce Springsteen has never performed ONE LOVE live.

Covers

As far as it's known, no artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's ONE LOVE.

Request

The above lyrics may not be 100% correct. If you have any corrections, additions, or comments, please contact me via the below form or by email: .

Available Versions

List of available versions of ONE LOVE on this website:

ONE LOVE [Unofficial studio version]

Page last updated: 17 May 2025