7. one

7. ONE (1) is a number used to represents a single entity. In mathematics, it usually represents the first ordinal number, though some modern conventions use 0 as the first ordinal number. One is the smallest positive odd integer.

President George Washington, the first president of the United States, is on the one dollar bill.

“One” is one of the most well known songs from the musical A Chorus Line, book by James Kirkwood, Jr., and Nicholas Dante, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and music by Marvin Hamlisch. The original Broadway production was an unprecedented box office and critical hit, receiving twelve Tony Award nominations and winning nine of them, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Running for 6,137 performances, it was the longest-running production in Broadway history up to that time. “One” (reprise/finale) begins with an individual bow for each of the nineteen dancer characters, their hodgepodge rehearsal clothes replaced by identical spangled gold costumes. As each dancer joins the group, it is suddenly difficult to distinguish one from the other; each character who was an individual to the audience is now an anonymous member of an ensemble.

The band Three Dog Night reminded us that “one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do” in their number 5 billboard hit song “One,” first written and recorded by Harry Nilsson in 1968. Aimee Mann rerecorded this song for soundtrack for Magnolia in 1999, which starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, and Jason Robards.

A clip of Jason Robards from the movie Johnny Got his Gun (1971) can be seen in the music video “One” by thrash metal band Metallica. A fan favorite, the song's theme is based on the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. The book tells the story of a soldier whose body was severely damaged after he stepped on a mine during World War I, leaving his body damaged beyond recognition. Knowing only pain, the soldier was kept alive on life support. “One” was released as the third single from, the band’s 1988 album ... And Justice For All. Metallica won their first Grammy Award in 1990 for “One” winning Best Metal Performance. “One” was also the band's first top 40 hit single peaking at number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 15 on the Mainstream Rock charts.

The ONE Campaign is a project that is part of Debt AIDS Trade Africa, or DATA, which was created by Bono of U2. One of U2’s most popular songs is “One,” the third single to be released from their Achtung, Baby! CD. The program educates people, one by one, about the seriousness of AIDS and poverty via celebrities, partnerships with America OnLine, the National Basketball Association, and other groups. ONE believes that allocating more of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water, and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world's poorest countries. ONE also seeks to increase efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty by advocating for legislation on debt cancellation, increasing effective international assistance, making trade fair, and fighting corruption.