Songfacts®:

• In the liner notes to the Japanese edition of the Empire album, lead guitarist Chris Degarmo wrote: "One and Only is a song... a personal lyric of mine. And it's inspired by the time when I first met my wife Kimberly, we met in 1986. And we had a birthday party. Actually I really rather not to talk about this. The song says everything that I wanted to say. It's personal and I really don't want to lay out to everyone in the world exactly how my wife and I met, and what we did on our first date."
• Speaking further about the writing of the song and love songs in general to Music Express, Degarmo said, "Sometimes when you're looking for things to write about, you have to reach into yourself, and that's not an easy area to share. I don't want people to know about my wife, but I ended up writing a song about her. Some people thought that would be a mushy love song when they saw the lyrics, but that track just blazes with energy. It threw some people off that a love song doesn't have to be a ballad. Love is anything but a ballad!"