Produced by Kershaw and Alan Shacklock, and recorded and mixed by Gareth Cousins, Hawkes' recording was featured in the 1991 film Buddy's Song which starred Hawkes as the eponymous Buddy and Roger Daltrey as his father. The film performed moderately well at the UK box office, but the song was a hit in that country's music charts, spending five weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in March and April 1991.[2][3] Kershaw's influence can also be heard throughout the track not only in guitar style but he also sung the vocal on the intro and choruses, with Hawkes singing the verses.
Larry Flick from Billboard commented, "Sugar-coated pop rocker by U.K. male vocalist, who was discovered by Roger Daltrey, is beginning to duplicate previous European chart success. Anthemic lyrics and a heartfelt performance should help push this over the top with top 40 punters."[4] "The One and Only" was a hit in the US, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100singles chart in November 1991.[5]
Music videos[]
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Two music videos were made. One featured Hawkes performing for a crowd on a stage. The second video features a girl (played by Saffron) and her friend (played by Lucy Alexander) going to a cinema to watch Buddy's Song, where Hawkes jumps out of the screen and beckons the girl to follow him. They go into a storage room, but Hawkes is then pulled back into the screen; he escapes again, only to have Roger Daltrey (who plays the father of Hawkes's character in the film) come out of the screen and chase after them. Finally, at the end of the video, Hawkes reaches out of the screen to the girl, who takes his hands and goes into the screen with him. They kiss whilst being watched by the girl's shocked friend.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
Use in other media[]
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The song was later featured in the 1991 film Doc Hollywood
Director Duncan Jones featured the song in some of his films. In Moon it is used as the wake-up alarm for the main character (ironically, as he soon discovers he is a clone). In the 2011 film Source Code, the song appears as the cellphone ringtone of the character of Christina. It is heard as background music for a game being played in Jones' 2018 film Mute.
On many Counter-strike multiplayer servers the lyric "I am the one and only..." plays when a player's teammates have all been killed leaving him as the only remaining player from his team.
Polish musician covered the song with altered lyrics on his 2000 album under the title Typ Niepokorny (pol.A Defiant Type).
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 280. ISBN9789511210535.