“One in a Million” by Aaliyah

This (“One in a Million”) is, simply put, a love song. And what Aaliyah is basically doing is touting the love of her significant other as being “one in a million”. Or another way one can put it is that she considers him to be irreplaceable. And these sentiments are due to the way that he makes her feel.

Facts about “One in a Million”

This is the title track from Aaliyah’s second album. And it was released as part of that project on 27 August 1996. Moreover a few months later Atlantic Records and Blackground Records also issued it as the third single from the album.

This song was produced by Timbaland who also co-wrote it alongside another music legend, Missy Elliott. And whereas all fans of Aaliyah know that she regularly worked with Timbaland and Missy, this was actually one of the first tracks she recorded with them. And the success of the album overall is said to have been instrumental in all three of them blowing up.

The music video to this song, which also featured Timbaland and Missy, had Paul Hunter as its director.

R&B singer Ginuwine is also present on the clip. And it is said to be loosely based on sci-fi movies such as “Aliens” (1986), “12 Monkeys” (1995) and “The Matrix” (1999).

The track went on to be nominated for a Soul Train Award in 1998. It also topped Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list in addition to peaking at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart.

And amongst the artists who have covered “One in a Million” are The-Dream (2010) and Omarion (2011). Additionally it has been sampled by the likes of Iggy Azalea (2012).

And interesting to note is that whereas “One in a Million” did prove to be a notable hit and one of Aaliyah’s best-known songs, initially radio stations were against the idea of playing it due to what they deemed to be its unorthodox sound. In fact their reluctance was so pronounced that the CEO of Blackground Records actually put the master recording outside of the reach of Atlantic Records.  And why? That is because he was convinced they were going to remix the song, which Blackground did not approve of.