D major · Camelot 10B · 107 BPM
One Headlight
by The Wallflowers
- 107
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 71
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Jakob Dylan wrote "One Headlight" at a kitchen table in Los Angeles, shortly after a recent record with Virgin Records had been considered a disappointment. Feeling the band deserved a second chance, he set out to impress a producer he wanted to work with rather than to write a hit. He shared the song with that producer and believed the man enjoyed it, but never heard back after leaving. The song, which Dylan described as being about "the death of ideas", was the second written during the recording of Bringing Down the Horse.
Dylan drew inspiration from Leon Russell, Dr. John, and Al Green, and felt there was a "place for that type of feeling and mood on the radio." Some lyrics were influenced by Bruce Springsteen, with references to "Independence Day" and "One Step Up". T Bone Burnett produced the track, which was released to radio in January 1997 as the second single from the album.
The song became the first single to reach No. 1 on all three of Billboard's rock airplay charts: Modern Rock Tracks, Mainstream Rock Songs, and Triple-A. It also spent five weeks at No. 1 in Canada. In 2000, Rolling Stone and MTV placed it at No. 58 on their list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs of All Time". At the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, it won Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
One Headlight runs at 107 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.24 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 561 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.