

On the issue date of November 5, 1988, the single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart, making it her seventh number-one single on the chart, and stayed on the top for two weeks. It also debuted on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (formerly "Hot Black Singles") at number 78, the issue dated September 17, 1988, and six weeks later reached a peak of 22, her lowest position on the R&B chart at the time. Nine weeks later, it peaked at number five on the chart, the issue date of November 12, 1988, becoming Houston's tenth top 10 hit on the Hot 100, and spent 17 weeks on the chart. The song debuted at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, the issue dated September 10, 1988. The song, a staple of sports montages, yielded one of Houston's all-time best performances at the 1989 Grammys ceremony." "One Moment in Time" was released by Arista Records in August 1988 as the first single from The 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time, the soundtrack to the Games in Seoul, South Korea. Also following Houston's death, Entertainment Weekly published a list of her 25 best songs and ranked it #14 because: "The Seoul Olympics needed an anthem, and Houston rose to meet the challenge with this majestic carpe diem chest-thumper.

The track is an anthem for believing in yourself against all odds as Houston asks for "One moment in time/when I'm racing with destiny/Then, in that one moment of time, I will feel eternity". It appeared on the album 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time, produced in conjunction with NBC Sports' coverage of the Seoul games and which, in addition to Whitney Houston who sang it live at the main ceremony, also featured artists such as: The Four Tops, The Bee Gees, Eric Carmen, Taylor Dayne and the film composer John Williams. The song's melody was inspired by the timeless figure of Elvis Presley, with Hammond imagining it as being sung by Presley at the opening of the Olympics. The song was Houston's third number one in the UK Singles Chart, and reached number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. "One Moment in Time" is a worldwide hit Emmy Award winning song written by Albert Hammond and John Bettis, produced by Narada Michael Walden and recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1988 Summer Paralympics held in Seoul, South Korea.
