Joan Osbourne - One Of Us Lyrics

"One of Us" is a song by American singer Joan Osborne for her debut studio album, Relish (1995). Written by Eric Bazilian of the Hooters and produced by Rick Chertoff, the song was released on November 21, 1995 by Blue Gorilla and Mercury, as Osborne's debut single and lead single from Relish.

It became a hit in November of that year, peaking at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and earning three Grammy nominations. "One of Us" was also a hit around the world, topping the charts of Australia, Canada, Flanders, and Sweden, reaching number six on the UK Singles Chart, and becoming a top-20 hit in at least 12 other countries.

The song went on to serve as the opening theme for the American television series Joan of Arcadia. The music video for "One of Us" was directed by Mark Seliger and Fred Woodward, and filmed in Coney Island, New York City.

Regarding his experience of writing "One of Us", Eric Bazilian said:
"I wrote that song one night—the quickest song I ever wrote—to impress a girl. Which worked, because we're married and have two kids."

The girl in question was Sarah, a Swedish girl he met on a plane when the Hooters were flying in to play in a festival in Sweden. He invited her to Philadelphia when he was making Joan Osborne's album Relish together with Rob Hyman and Rick Chertoff.

While they were watching a documentary on the making of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, she became interested in four-track recording and asked him to record one. Bazilian had a guitar riff that he had been playing that day, so he recorded that expanded into a song. However, he did not have the lyrics, so he tried to write the lyrics after she fell asleep.

He had the voice of Brad Roberts (with whom he recorded a demo in 1994) from Crash Test Dummies in his mind when he wrote the lyrics.

He had trouble finishing the line "a stranger on the bus", and Sarah suggested "Tryin' to make his way home?" after she woke up. As for the line "Just a slob like one of us", Bazilian said that he did not intend to mean God was a slob, but rather that the song is about human beings.

In 2007, the song was ranked at number 54 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '90s" and number ten on the network's "40 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the '90s".