“One’s On The Way” was a humorous piece on motherhood in which an average, ordinary housewife compares her conditions to the glamorous lives of entertainment celebrities such as Raquel Welch, Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor. Songwriter Shel Silverstein (whose most famous hit up to that point had been Johnny Cash’s 1969 blockbuster, “A Boy Named Sue”), concocted “One’s On The Way” and sent it to producer Owen Bradley at Decca Records.
Surprisingly, Silverstein didn’t have Loretta in mind as the performer of “One’s On The Way” when he wrote it. Bradley claims Shel thought it might be something Jeannie Seely (another female singer on Decca’s roster) might be interested in. Well, Seely hated the song and wouldn’t touch it, so Owen filed the tune away.
At the time, Loretta Lynn had plenty of songs lined up and didn’t need any new ones. But that situation completely changed when she left the Wil-Helm agency and her managers Doyle and Teddy Wilburn (who were instrumental in helping Loretta get her start in Nashville). Lynn had signed some lifetime contracts with the Wilburn brothers, and since the deals would provide them royalties from any new songs that she would write, she declined to write any new ones. So, just that quickly, Loretta found herself needing fresh material to record and began scouting around for some hit-making tunes.