"The One Thing" is a song by Australian rock group INXS, released in July 1982 as the first single ahead of their third studio album, Shabooh Shoobah, which appeared in October that year.

In January 1982 INXS toured New Zealand as support act for Cold Chisel. Band manager Murphy, became convinced their future no longer lay with Deluxe Records. RCA (who distributed Deluxe) had employed music lover Rockin' Rod Woods, who had been promoting Eric Clapton, Split Enz and some of the worlds biggest acts. Woods was passionate about the band and brought key music people along to their gigs. He encouraged RCA to sign them worldwide because Murphy had played him some demos of future songs. Deluxe had been unable to attract international interest, and the band decided to record a new song at their own expense, with Mark Opitz at Paradise Studios. The resultant single, "One Thing", peaked at number 14 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. Due to the success of the song Murphy hired Opitz to produce three more songs. Murphy also approached WEA Australia with copies of the song, leading to INXS signing a recording deal in July 1982 with WEA for releases in Australia, South East Asia, Japan and New Zealand, Atco Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records) for North America and Polygram for Europe and the UK.

Shabooh Shoobah was released in the United States in February 1983 and peaked at number 46 on the Billboard 200 album chart. "The One Thing" brought INXS their first Top 40 hit in the US, reaching number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May–June 1983. It was a big hit on album-oriented rock radio, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart, and was also a top 20 hit in Canada.

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