normalising is about changing the relative amplitude of a sample in relation to 0dbfs.
Pushing a sample so that it is normalised to -1dbfs is not going to give you much room to play with it when creating and subsequently mixing.
In most cases you want to normalise to either -3dbfs or -6dbfs; -3dbfs if you are only going to use without creatively altering it, -6dbfs if you intend to mash-it-up somehow.