Video Classics: ‘One of Us’ – Joan Osborne

Joan Osborne in Concert, 2010 (Jason Kempin, Getty Images)

When The Archivist was young, which was rather a long time ago (but not so long as some, though The Archivist is not naming names Messrs. Verity and Bartlett), The Archivist did not refer to themselves in the third person.  But that is not the point. The Archivist also remembers the home movies of those bygone days, shown by The Archivist’s father on a small Super 8 projector. The dim lamp and low frame rate gave everything the sepia-toned, slightly herky-jerky quality that is used to good effect in the video for Joan Osborne‘s “One of Us”.  For those youngsters whose childhood movies were taken by a video phone, enjoy a trip down Memory Lane (and a nice song, to boot) …

“One of Us” was released on Osborne’s album Relish in 1995. The song was written by singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer and founding member of The Hooters Eric Bazilian. Bazilian claims it is the fastest song he has ever written, something he just threw together to impress a girl. He included it as a bonus track in his first solo album, but it was Osborne who would make it famous when (producer of Relish) Rich Chertoff asked Osborne if she could sing it. She could, and did, and it got included in Relish, going on to become a #4 hit and getting multiple Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year. That’s not too bad considering that the song is, at its roots, a frank expression of faith and belief in God, something that doesn’t always go over that comfortably in the oh-so-progressive world of popular culture.

Oh, and that girl that Bazilian wrote “One of Us” to impress? She went on to become his wife and mother of his children, so we’ll guess that his rendition, also, was pretty impressive.

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