Songfacts®:

• In 1979, Crawford sang with The Crusaders, providing vocals for their hit "Street Life." Now We May Begin was produced by The Crusaders, and this song (as well as "Street Life") was written by their keyboard player Joe Sample with lyrics by Will Jennings, who told Songfacts: "'One Day I'll Fly Away' was written specifically for Randy Crawford. Joe and I were asked to write songs for her album and the Crusaders asked to produce it, so Joe and I went up to his place in Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Sierras, in the winter, and started writing. The song is about emotional bondage and the longing to be free of it."
  
  "Among the other songs Joe and I wrote for the 1980 Now We May Begin album are "When Your Life Was Low" and "Last Night at Danceland." On that album Randy also covered a song Joe and I wrote for the B.B. King Take It Home album, "Same Old Story." In 1980 Lalo Shifrin and I wrote "People Alone" for the film The Competition, which Randy performed. That resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Lalo and me, my first."
• Around the time Jennings wrote this, he was also working with Steve Winwood on his 1980 album Arc Of A Diver, writing lyrics for his comeback hit "While You See A Chance." He and Sample were also working on The Crusaders 1981 album Soul Shadows, which featured guest vocals by Bill Withers, and the song "I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today," which was recorded by The Crusaders with Joe Cocker on vocals.
• Nicole Kidman sang this in the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge, which she starred in. Says Jennings, "Baz Luhrmann in his fabulous over-the-top movie used the song as the theme for the character played by Nicole Kidman - the character is bound by the life she is living and wants to be free of it."