“I will say when I first heard it, it was a little like, ‘OK.’ It was that moment when I was like, ‘All right. I’m gonna sing over this. ‘Kay’”: How Amerie created a ‘00s R&B/funk classic with producer Rich Harrison - and a little help from The Meters

Amerie.

When Amerie’s 1 Thing crashed onto the radio back in January 2005, it felt like it was doing it almost literally. The clattering drum opening - lifted from The Meters’ 1969 song, Oh, Calcutta - sounds like someone trying to batter down a door.

1 Thing was produced and co-written by Rich Harrison who, in 2003, had helped Beyoncé to create Crazy In Love, her breakthrough solo hit. There are certainly similarities between the two songs: both are heavily percussive and powered by a sampled vintage funk loop (Crazy In Love samples The Chi-Lites' Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So))