Since 1986, Kershaw's commercial success was declining with his singles charting lower and lower from the top 20 chart within the UK. "One Step Ahead" managed to peak at #55 in the UK, lasting on the chart for two weeks. This was Kershaw's last appearance on the UK singles chart until 1999 with the single "Somebody Loves You".

"One Step Ahead" was written by Kershaw who would write most of his material solely. The song was produced by Julian Mendelsohn and Kershaw. Mendelsohn is a British producer who has worked with numerous artists such as Pet Shop Boys, Elton John, Jimmy Page, Bob Marley and Paul McCartney. Although the album was produced by Peter Wolf and co-produced by Brian Malouf, both singles, including "One Step Ahead", were written shortly after Kershaw became unhappy with Wolf's production and his direction for the album. Both singles were produced by Kershaw and Julian Mendelsohn, whilst the two also re-worked the production of the entire album, earning them an additional production credit.

The b-side for the single "When I Grow Up" was exclusive to the single, written and produced solely by Kershaw.

A remix of "One Step Ahead" was issued on some versions of the single, titled "One Step Ahead (Industrial Mix)". The CD format of the single featured two bonus tracks, both previous hits for Kershaw, "Wouldn't It Be Good" and "The Riddle".

In an interview around the time of the album's release, Kershaw spoke of The Works album and the song's creation and recording, after his dissatisfaction of producer Peter Wolf's work on The Works album. "In August 1987 I went to Los Angeles to record The Works album in 4 months with producer Peter Wolf. Back home in England I listened to the album and discovered that I hated it. I could never have promoted that album. How could I tell the people: it's a great product, buy it!, if I wouldn't have bought it myself. So I quickly wrote two more songs, among which was "One Step Ahead", and I did a lot all over again with Julian Mendelsohn in London. Eventually the record was only finished last year in October. But I must say that I'm a whole lot happier about it now."

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Wikipedia