Album at a glance
The case for the album
Why this album matters
Going for the One restores Rick Wakeman while changing the proportions of a Yes album. Four concise songs share the record with Awaken, a fifteen-minute finale, so the band can move between direct rock, acoustic narrative, organ-driven scale and long-form ritual without making one format carry the whole identity.
The album's freshness comes from openness. Recorded in Montreux without longtime studio partner Eddy Offord, the arrangements give steel guitar, piano, choir and church organ unusual air. The title track and Wonderous Stories reach outward quickly; Awaken gathers the same lineup into a patient cumulative form.
Before the tape rolled
Historical and recording context
After the Relayer period and a run of solo albums, Yes booked Mountain Studios in Montreux in September 1976. Patrick Moraz departed during preparation, and Rick Wakeman first returned as a session participant before rejoining Anderson, Howe, Squire and White.
Yesworld describes a more communal and improvisational writing process. The album was made away from Britain and without Eddy Offord, giving the group responsibility for steering the sessions while retaining its established instrumental identities.
Players and production
Personnel and instruments
Jon Anderson
Vocals and harp
Connects compact melodic songs with the sustained spiritual arc of Awaken.
Steve Howe
Electric, acoustic and pedal steel guitars, vocals
Makes steel guitar a defining colour and shapes Turn of the Century's narrative movement.
Chris Squire
Bass and vocals
Supplies the organ-driven Parallels and a firm melodic foundation across the album.
Rick Wakeman
Piano, electronic keyboards and church organ
Returns with both bright ensemble parts and the large acoustic space of Awaken's organ.
Alan White
Drums and tuned percussion
Supports the shorter rock forms and helps build Awaken's gradual central ritual.
What to listen for
The sound
The production leaves more space around instruments than the dense Relayer mix. Howe's steel guitar can cut across the title track without masking Squire's bass; piano and acoustic guitar retain full attacks in Turn of the Century.
Awaken uses accumulation differently from earlier side-long Yes pieces. Harp and tuned percussion create a suspended centre, while church organ and choir enlarge the acoustic environment. The return to full ensemble feels architectural because the track has carefully separated its materials.
The original running order
Track-by-track guide
Going for the One
Written by Jon Anderson
Howe's steel guitar and a direct rhythmic drive give the opener unusual forward motion. Anderson's vocal sits above tightly coordinated bass and drums, while keyboards brighten rather than thicken the arrangement. The song announces a shorter, more immediate Yes without simplifying the playing.
Turn of the Century
Written by Anderson, Howe and White
Acoustic guitar and piano support a narrative of sculpture, loss and transformation. The ensemble expands gradually around the vocal rather than imposing a riff. Its pacing allows instrumental detail to carry emotional change.
Parallels
Written by Chris Squire
Church organ gives Squire's song a vertical scale while bass and drums keep it physically direct. Guitar and vocal harmonies reinforce the upward motion. The track joins hard rock attack with a space normally associated with sacred music.
Wonderous Stories
Written by Jon Anderson
A concise melody, layered voices and bright instrumental colours create the album's lightest surface. The arrangement avoids a large climax, trusting the shape of the song. Its economy made it an effective single without detaching it from the album's imagery.
Awaken
Written by Jon Anderson and Steve Howe
The finale begins in flowing ensemble motion, opens into a long harp-and-percussion centre and returns through church organ, choir and full band. Each stage changes the acoustic frame. The piece achieves scale through patience, not constant density.
Ideas and atmosphere
Themes and concept
The songs repeatedly connect striving with transformation. Sport, sculpture, stories and awakening are different images for movement toward an ideal. The album does not turn them into a fixed plot, but their shared direction creates coherence.
Sacred and modern images deliberately coexist. Church organ and choir appear beside steel guitar and forceful rock rhythm; the cover places a human figure against contemporary towers while retaining the Yes logo.
The sleeve
Cover artwork and presentation
Hipgnosis designed the trifold sleeve after a change from the band's established Roger Dean partnership, though Dean's Yes logo remained. The exterior's modern towers and nude figure contrast with the more timeless sky imagery inside, mirroring an album that joins direct contemporary sound with older spiritual scale.
On release
Release and contemporary reception
Released on 7 July 1977, Going for the One reached number 1 in the UK. Yesworld records Wonderous Stories reaching number 7, the band's highest UK singles peak, while the album restored the group to the top of the LP chart.
That response followed a period of lineup uncertainty and individual projects. The record succeeded without reproducing Tales or Relayer, instead balancing four comparatively concise tracks with one extended finale.
After the first pressing
Reputation and legacy
Going for the One endures as a successful return that also changes direction. Wakeman's presence restores a familiar lineup, yet the production, artwork and song proportions avoid simply reconstructing the early-1970s albums.
Awaken became the record's long-form centre, while the shorter tracks demonstrate that Yes's identity can survive compression. The combination provides a bridge between the classic epic period and the more direct forms that followed.
Which version?
Editions and listening notes
Rhino's documented edition preserves the original five-track sequence using the 2003 remasters. Yesworld also places the album within the Studio Albums 1969–1987 remastered collection.
Listen first for scale rather than virtuosity: compare the close acoustic detail of Turn of the Century with the large church space inside Awaken. That contrast explains more than treating the finale as an isolated epic.
A practical route in
Suggested listening path
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Going for the One official discographyYesworld, official artist archive
- Going for the One chart historyOfficial Charts Company
- Going for the One official product pageRhino, official catalogue label
- The Studio Albums 1969–1987Yesworld, official artist catalogue