You and I (Lady Gaga song)

"You and I"
File:GagaYouIcover.jpg
Single by Lady Gaga
from the album Born This Way
Released	August 23, 2011
Format	CD single digital download 7"
Recorded	2010; Warehouse Productions, (Omaha, Nebraska), Switzerland, Allertown Hill (United Kingdom)
Genre	Pop rock
Length	5:07
Label	Streamline Kon Live Interscope
Writer(s)	Stefani Germanotta
Producer(s)	Lady Gaga Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Lady Gaga singles chronology
"3-Way (The Golden Rule)" (2011) "You and I" (2011) "The Lady Is a Tramp" (2011)

"You and I" (stylized as "Yoü and I") is a song by American singer Lady Gaga, taken from her second studio album, Born This Way (2011). Written by Gaga, "You and I" samples Queen's "We Will Rock You" (1977) and features electric guitar by Queen's Brian May. The song was debuted by Gaga in June 2010 during her performance at Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball. Footage of the performance appeared on the Internet, and positive response encouraged her to incorporate the song into her setlist for The Monster Ball Tour. She subsequently performed the song on Today to a record crowd in July 2010, and on The Oprah Winfrey Show in May 2011. The song was released as the fourth single from the album, on August 23, 2011 by Interscope.

"You and I" is a slow tempo song featuring instrumentation from electric guitars and piano, with Gaga and Lange providing background vocals. The song received critical acclaim, with reviewers listing it as one of the highlights from Born This Way. After the release of the parent album, "You and I" charted in Canada, United Kingdom and the United States, due to digital downloads from the parent album. Season ten American Idol contestant Haley Reinhart performed "You and I" in May 2011 prior to its release, earning positive reviews. Her studio recording was released to the iTunes Store as a single, and appeared on the compilation album, American Idol Top 5 Season 10. "You and I" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards, which was held on February 12, 2012.

The accompanying music video for "You and I" was released on August 16, 2011 and was shot by Gaga's long-time collaborator Laurieann Gibson in Springfield, Nebraska. The video features Jo Calderone, Gaga's male alter ego, who is also featured on the single's cover, and Yüyi, her mermaid alter ego. The main concept behind the video was Gaga's journey to be with her beloved one; she is portrayed through an assortment of scenes displaying her in various avatars, including Calderone and Yuyi. After its release, the video was met with positive reception.

Production and release

Lady Gaga, as her alter ego Jo Calderone, at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.

"You and I" was written by Lady Gaga and produced by Gaga and Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and was one of the first songs previewed from the album. Gaga said that the song was written in New York, while she was busy playing her old piano. The singer had first played "You and I" at Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball in June 2010. She said that the song was bit of a "rock-and-roll tune", predicting that it may not be released as a single from Born This Way, but that it will remain "very dear" to her heart. Footage of the performance appeared on the Internet soon after, and positive response encouraged Lady Gaga to perform the song during the first concert of the North American leg of The Monster Ball Tour in Montreal. Gaga told MSNBC's Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry that "'You and I' was written about the most important person that I ever met", allegedly Lüc Carl, her ex-boyfriend.

"You and I" was announced by Gaga on July 22, 2011 as the fourth single from Born This Way. The single cover for "You and I" was released on August 5, 2011, via TwitPic, accompanied with the line: "You will never find what you are looking for in love, if you don't love yourself." It features two black-and-white images of Gaga's male alter ego Jo Calderone, while smoking a cigarette and sporting sideburns. Previously the character of Calderone had made an appearance in June 2011, when Gaga posed as him for a series of photos in London by photographer Nick Knight and arranged by stylist Nicola Formichetti. One shot features him wearing a blazer and white T-shirt with his head down and smoking a cigarette. The other image is of Jo Calderone in silhouette puffing out a cloud of smoke. A writer for The Daily Telegraph of Australia described the images as giving a moody and scruffy look, and felt that Gaga had become "bored with being an outrageous woman and has decided to switch gender instead." Rap-Up's David Jones commented that Gaga's Calderone character looked similar to musician Bob Dylan on the cover. Although Steve Pond of Reuters did not like the song, he stated about the artwork, "Lady Gaga loves herself even when she's dressed as a guy."

Composition

"You and I" has rock music and country music influences, and features British rock band Queen's guitarist Brian May. It was recorded by Tom Ware and Horace Ward at the Warehouse Productions Studio in Omaha, Nebraska, and Allertwon Hill in the United Kingdom, respectively. Along with May, Justin Shirley Smith also played guitars, while Gene Grimaldi did the mastering of the track. Additional recording and programming were done by Olle Romo. Before production credits were announced in April 2011, Gaga had teased that "someone legendary" would be producing the track. Gaga, a Queen fan (even taking her stage name from the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga"), admitted to "[falling] to the floor crying and laughing" when she found out that May agreed to the collaboration. Lange requested that Gaga record a "rough lead vocal" for the track while she was touring. Gaga later recalled: "I had about 30 cigarettes and a couple of glasses of Jameson and just put on a click track and sang my face off, thinking we'd redo the vocals." However, Lange was satisfied with Gaga's recording and it was used as the final recorded vocals for the track. Ware recalled that the song was recorded the night after Gaga's March 17, 2011, concert for The Monster Ball Tour. Gaga welcomed his opinions and encouraged his input, which according to him, helped make the four-hour session the best working experience he has had with a celebrity. "She was flattering toward the studio — and Omaha, too, for that matter. She is a bright young lady with remarkable music instincts who charts her own path," he added.

According to the sheet music published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "You and I" is set in common time with a slow tempo of 60 beats per minute. It is written in the key of A major, and during the song, Gaga's voice spans from the notes of E₃ to C♯₅. The song begins with an A–G–A chord progression, which changes to A–Bm/A–D/A–B♯m during the chorus, and back to the former chords afterwards. The opening lyrics—"It's been a long time since I came around/ It's been a long time, but I'm back in town/ And this time, I'm not leaving without you"—describe a whiskey-breathed lover for whom she is pining. Gil Kaufman from MTV News described it as the "tune eschewed most of her dance flavor, right down to a rollicking barrel-house piano solo." Her voice sounded like growling during the main verses, where she sings the lines "He said, 'Sit back down where you belong, in the corner of my bar with your high heels on, Sit back down on the couch where we made love the first time, and you said to me." Noting the differences between live performances of the song and the studio version, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph observed that the piano parts were replaced mostly by "fizzing synths, a stomping beat sampled from "We Will Rock You", thundering electric guitars and backing vocals stacked into shimmering choral walls." Music critic Kitty Empire, while writing for The Guardian, described the song as an "umlaut-toting digital country power ballad" with two Bruce Springsteen references: "born to run" and Nebraska.

Critical reception

Brian May, guitarist for rock band Queen, plays on "You and I"

"You and I" received critical acclaim from music critics. After hearing the White Tie and Tiara Ball performance, Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt complimented the song for its "torchy, slow-burn cabaret quality" and for lacking "Auto-Tune, fancy production, or performance gimmicks". McCormick, who noted the differences between Gaga's live and studio versions of the song, described the studio version as "bigger, bolder and less quirkily emotive, a custom-built radio rock ballad to induce hand claps in packed stadiums. This is not music for the underground: it is cheesy, high-gloss, pop rock for the mainstream middle, a kind of instant Eighties retro classic to seduce middle-aged rockers – possibly the last demographic to remain sceptical about her appeal." Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone called the song a confessional power ballad "with a torrid, Sturm und Drang vocal turn". In his review for The Guardian, Tim Jonze said the song "aims for a 'Hey Jude' style singalong but – owing to its determination to have someone playing kitchen sink in the background – ends up as bloated as Oasis' 'All Around the World'." Dan Aquilante of The New York Post wrote a less-than-favorable review of Born This Way but complimented "You and I" and the "uniquely earthy quality" that Lange brought to the album. Kitty Empire said the song is Gaga's "unlikely heartland moment – a bid, perhaps, to locate herself as an all-American balladeer as well as an art-disco avatar with tent pegs under her skin", referring to the implants featured in the music video for the song "Born This Way".

The Dartmouth's Kate Sullivan wrote that "You and I" may be Gaga's most honest song to date. Shirley Halperin from The Hollywood Reporter wondered whether pop radio would play the song, considering Gaga's popularity. Halperin felt that the track emoted "a sense of grandness that listeners don't always get with Gaga's RedOne-produced heavily-synthetic sounds." Conversely, she felt that the addition of live piano and background vocals by Gaga and Lange added "an undeniably lush quality, while the lyrics drives the song home and potentially into hit territory." Kerri Mason from Billboard felt that the "country ballad" made no contextual sense. Nekesa Mumbi Moody, while reviewing Born This Way for Florida Today, compared the song to "Speechless", a similar tempo song included on The Fame Monster (2009). Robert Copsey, a writer for the website Digital Spy gave the song four out of five stars calling it a "torchy, retro-classic, all-American power ballad custom-built for the masses – and one we suspect Stefani would be proud to call her own." Amy Sciarretto of Artistdirect concluded that the song was "a bit bluesier than anything you'd expect from the dance floor icon." AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine chose the song as a highlight on Born This Way saying that Gaga shows her vulnerability in it.

"You and I" was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards, which was held on February 12, 2012.

Chart performance

Lady Gaga performing "You and I" in Manchester on The Born This Way Ball Tour.

In the United States, "You and I" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 36 on the chart dated June 11, 2011, after selling 83,000 downloads. The song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 96 on the issue dated August 27, 2011, while debuting on the Pop Songs chart at number 35. The next week, the song was the greatest gainer on the digital chart, entering at number 24 by selling 56,000 copies, while moving to number 35 on the Hot 100. It also gained airplay and became the highest debuting song on the Radio Songs chart, entering at number 58 with 22 million audience impressions. Following the performance of the song on the MTV Video Music Awards, "You and I" moved up to number 16 on the Hot 100, with a 92% increase in digital sales to 109,000 and 50% increase in airplay to 32 million, according to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. The following week, it moved to number six on the Hot 100 with a 61% increase in digital sales to 175,000 and a 32% increase in radio play to 41 million audience impressions, reaching number four and number 23 on the Digital Songs and Radio Songs charts, respectively. "You and I" became Gaga's eleventh consecutive top ten single on the Hot 100. In October 2011 it became Gaga's tenth song to sell 1 million in the U.S. As of April 2015, "You and I" has sold 2,310,000 digital downloads in the US becoming Gaga's tenth two-million seller. In June 2012 "You and I" received a double platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.

In Canada, the song entered the Hot Digital Songs chart at number 14, consequently debuting on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 27. It entered the charts again at number 45, and has reached a peak of number 10. Before the single was officially released, it started selling digital downloads in Australia, and subsequently entered the ARIA Singles Chart at number 56 on August 15, 2011. The next week, the song moved up to number 34, and has reached a peak of number 14. Following the album's release on May 23, 2011, "You and I" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 89, due to digital downloads from Born This Way. The song jumped up to number 70 from its previous week's position of number 187, on the issue dated September 3, 2011, and has reached a peak of number 23. In Japan, the song had initially entered the digital chart at number 98, but after the MTV Video Music Awards performance, it entered the Japan Hot 100 at number eight.

Music video

Background

"It was so sweet, and I looked out and it's so beautiful, that tall corn... Then all of a sudden you start to see these monsters pop up. I love this place [Nebraska] so much, and it really comes from a genuine place. The person who I wrote this song about has been my buddy and my best friend since I was 19 years old, and he's from here."

—Gaga talking about her love for Nebraska, and the shooting of the video.

The music video for "You and I" was filmed in Springfield, Nebraska in July 2011 and was directed by Lady Gaga's choreographer Laurieann Gibson. In the video, Gaga walks from New York City to Nebraska to get her boyfriend back. According to Gaga: "I'm walking with no luggage and no nothing and it's just me and my ankles are bleeding a little bit and there's grass stuck in my and I've got this outfit on and it's real sort of New York clothing and I'm sprinting... And the [video is about the] idea that when you're away from someone you love, it's torture," she continued. "I knew I wanted the video to be about me sprinting back and walking hundreds of thousands of miles to get him back."

The music video was announced to be released alongside the 1,000th message posted by Gaga on her Twitter account. Gaga confirmed to MTV News that the video was set to premiere on August 18, 2011 on MTV. However, two days before the video's television premiere, parts of the clip leaked on the Internet, prompting Gaga to post three tweets which, together, read "FUCK THURS DAY". The messages were immediately followed by her 1,000th Twitter message, "You must love all + every part of me, as must I, for this complex + incomprehensible force to be true," including a link to the full music video, which was uploaded onto Gaga's YouTube channel two days earlier than the scheduled premiere. The video features Gaga's two alter egos: Jo Calderone, Gaga's male ego, and Yüyi, a mermaid that was hinted to appear in the video in July 2011.

Following the premiere of the video on MTV, Gaga explained some of her inspirations and scenes of the video; "The video is quite complex in the way that the story is told, and it's meant to be slightly linear and slightly twisted and confusing, which is the way that love is", she added. Regarding the sexual intercourse scenes between actor Taylor Kinney and the singer as a mermaid, Gaga explained that metaphorically it emphasized the fact that sometimes relationships did not work. "No matter what you do, there's this giant boundary between you and someone else. So that's what it's about, perceiving in your imagination that there's something magical inside of you that you can make it work." After revealing that the wedding dress in the video belonged to her mother, Gaga explained the scenes involving the ice cream truck. According to her, it represented the destruction of her youth, experiences of which she had shared in her earlier interviews. Detailing her decision to include it, Gaga said:

That's how I wanted to open the video, because I think it really sets up the rest of the story. It allows you to imagine you yourself are not just one person; you're so many. That person has so many stories and memories to draw from, and they all affect your journey profusely. I'm battered quite brutally at the beginning of the video, but at the end, I'm not battered; I'm a bit strange. It's not meant to be an answer video; it's meant to be a profuse number of the question.

Synopsis

Lady Gaga as Yuyi the Mermaid in the music video

The music video begins with Gaga, dressed in black clothing, sunglasses, bloody feet and seemingly bionic features, walking through a field in Nebraska; having returned on foot after years of absence. Gaga goes to buy ice cream from an ice cream truck, but she suddenly drops it as a toothless man grins at her with a doll in his hand. She begins to then have flashbacks to her time spent in Nebraska as scenes of Gaga having a wedding, being tortured by a man inside a barn and being inside a water tank are shown in quick succession. The song starts playing as the camera slowly zooms towards Gaga, who is standing bent forward as she begins singing. The video continually switches to scenes where Gaga, with little make up, a simple gray-colored hair style and a white dress, plays a piano in the middle of a cornfield, while her male alter ego, Jo Calderone sits on top of the piano, smoking and drinking a beer. As Calderone pulls up his sleeves, present day Gaga is shown still walking through the desert.

During the second verse, a mad scientist, portrayed by Kinney seemingly tortures Gaga, who is wearing a yellow dress with glasses made of barbwire, as another version of the singer with teal-colored hair does a dance routine with her backup dancers in a barn. As the chorus begins for the second time, Gaga is portrayed as Yüyi the Mermaid, with gills on her face and neck, as she lies in a tub filled with dirty water. At the end of the chorus, the camera zooms to a brunette Gaga inside a water tank while she sings "You and I" in the desert scene and in the cornfield with Calderone. Interspersing scenes again show Gaga having her wedding, Yüyi in her tub, and Gaga seated on a chair with a conveyor belt. During May's guitar solo, Gaga is seen dancing in the cornfield with other dancers dressed in the same white dress, as Yüyi and the scientist kiss. While singing the chorus for the final time, Gaga kisses Calderone in one sequence and runs across the field in another. As the video reaches its conclusion, the tortured Gaga is seen being slid down as the conveyor belt turns on. The video ends with Yüyi and the scientist together in the bath tub, as a depiction of their dream wedding flash across, before a final shot of the barn as the screen turns black.

Reception

Following its premature release on the web, the music video for "You and I" was met with positive reviews. Matthew Perpetua from Rolling Stone felt that the video was an improvement from her previous videos, "Judas" and "The Edge of Glory", saying, "the best moments of the video put a distinctly Gaga-ish spin on the iconography of Americana and traditional love stories." Jillian Mapes from Billboard wrote, "torture contraptions, mermaid sex, a wedding, bondage in a barn, an ice cream truck, and to top it all off, 'Children of the Corn' and religious overtones thrown in for good measure," and thought of the video as the strangest representation of Nebraska, the video's setting. Leah Collins from Dose named the video a "great opportunity for the singer to finally find out what it's like to make out with herself." Kyle Anderson from Entertainment Weekly made note of the video's scene in which Gaga plays a piano in a cornfield alongside her male alter ego: "She's just Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, playing a piano in the middle of a corn field—with a little making out on the side, of course." Gil Kaufman from MTV News believed that Gaga was not joking when she talked about the video being about the "torture" of being away from the one you love. "And, man, based on the bruising final product, she wasn't kidding," Kaufman concluded.

Jocelyn Vena from MTV found influences of Gaga's past videos, in the various avatars that she plays in the music video. She explained that "when [Gaga] stands at a crossroads in a big hat, the image is reminiscent of 'Telephone' Gaga. When she sits nearly makeup-free at her piano in the cornfields, there are of the teary-eyed makeup-less Gaga from the 'Bad Romance' video. Flashes of her wedding may remind fans of the wedding dress she wore in the 'Judas' clip. Robot Gaga's facial structures recall some of the steampunk looks of her 'Alejandro' video. Those are only a few of the nods to past personae from her own videography." Devin Brown from CBS News felt that Gaga had finally returned to form with the video. "After some visually pleasing but generally lackluster videos, she has finally come out with something to write home about. 'You and I' is arguably the best song on her sophomore release, Born This Way, and now has a video to match." A writer from Slant Magazine commented that the publication had a mixed reaction to the video, saying that it "is essentially a collection of disconnected images we couldn't make heads or tails of."

Fashion films

On September 1, 2011, Gaga announced on her Twitter account that she had shot five "fashion films" related to the music video of the song, with Dutch photographer duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. The characters are: Jo Calderone (gaga's alter ego), Yuyi (a mermaid), Nymph, Bride, and finally Barn Hooker and Mother. After the tweet, Gaga released the first video, titled "Haus of Ü Featuring Nymph". The two-minute black-and-white video featured Gaga with minimal make-up and performing ballet choreography, while wearing a short dress. As wind blows around her, the singer looks intently towards the camera, with the parting shot being in color film. The second video featured her as the bride from the opening sequence of the original video. The fashion film portrayed her in the same costume, gradually removing it and her wig. At the end, she becomes topless with her hand covering her breasts. Interspersed between are scenes portraying people dressed like Gaga, and appearances by Taylor Kinney from the music video and the singer's stylist Nicola Formichetti. The third fashion film portrayed the singer as the mermaid Yüyi. She sits on a director's chair, flopping her tail. Furthermore, it shows two crew members carrying Yuyi toward the barn, where the original video was filmed. Formichetti also makes a cameo in this video too. In March 2012, the fourth film featuring Jo Calderone was published to Gaga's YouTube channel, and in August 2012, the fifth and final film titled "Haus of Ü feat. Barn Hooker and Mother" was officially published; The film, also featured Taylor Kinney and people characterized as Gaga.

Live performances

Lady Gaga performing "You and I" before a record crowd on Today on July 9, 2010

After the first performance of "You and I" at Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball, Gaga performed the song live on television program Today on July 9, 2010, before an estimated crowd of 18,000–20,000 people, the largest ever to pack Rockefeller Plaza. It was next performed on the July 31, 2010, Phoenix stop of the Monster Ball Tour, where Gaga contested Arizona's immigration law SB 1070—which mandates that state police officers "question any person they suspect to be an illegal immigrant and imprison any aliens not carrying one of four allowed forms of proper identification"—and dedicated her performance of "You and I" to a boy whose family was affected by the law. Gaga performed the album version of the track on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 5, 2011, using a piano constructed from a wire high-heel structure while sitting on a high stool. The "less organic" version for the final "Harpo Hookups" episode featured an electric guitar and modified lyrics to include Oprah's name.

The song was included in the setlist of the HBO television special, Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden, which originally aired on May 7, 2011, in the United States. Gaga's performance of "You and I" from the HBO special aired on American Idol, the night after she mentored the four remaining contestants and the week following Haley Reinhart's performance of the song. A jazz version of "You and I" was performed by her at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Carlisle, Cumbria on May 18, 2011. The album version of the song, was the third performance on the Paul O'Grady Live show in London, on June 17, 2011. Wearing a dress by the late Gianni Versace, Gaga was perched atop a New York City inspired fire escape, from where she sang the song. Ryan Love of Digital Spy had a preview of the show's recording, and said that it was a "real treat" to hear Gaga sing the song. In August 2011, Gaga performed "You and I" on the American talk show program The View. On August 28, 2011, Gaga attended the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards dressed as Jo Calderone. As Calderone, Gaga opened the show with a four-minute monologue, explaining his broken relationship with Gaga. Following the monologue, she performed "You and I" while joined on stage by Brian May. On October 6, 2011, she filmed a pre-recorded interview and performance for the single on The Jonathan Ross Show. Later, on October 16, 2011 she performed the song during a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles for the Clinton Foundation.

On the ABC special, A Very Gaga Thanksgiving, the singer performed the song with a "piano-and-trumpet arrangement". On November 30, during the CBS special titled The Grammy Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night—where the nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards were revealed—Gaga performed "You and I" along with Jennifer Nettles of the country band Sugarland while Kristian Bush played the guitar. During the performance she changed the lyrics to fit the occasion: "With your high cowboy boots on. Oh Sugarland, it's been six whole years." According to James Montgomery of MTV News, she performed a "husky, musky version" of "You and I". The song was performed on her 2012 Born This Way Ball tour. During the performance Gaga played the piano. Like previous concert tours, the piano was an elaborate prop that tied into the theme of her show. In keeping with the hair metal theme of Born This Way, the piano was fused to a motorcycle.

Cover versions

Prior to the release of Born This Way, season ten American Idol contestant Haley Reinhart sang "You and I" as one of two performances for the "Songs from Now and Then" episode. It was requested by Jimmy Iovine, head of Gaga's record label and Reinhart received Gaga's permission prior to the performance. Reviews of Reinhart's performance were mostly positive. Len Melisurgo from The Star-Ledger considered the selection to be risky, since the song had not been released, but accepted that Reinhart "sounded amazing" by hitting "some really high notes". Brian Mansfield from USA Today described Reinhart's performance as an "old-fashioned dance-hall groove, kind of like a mid-'70s Elton John number. It's perfectly suited to that slippery growl that such a distinctive component of Haley's style. By the end of the song, she turns it into a gospel-style rocker, and she takes it to the house." Mansfield also noted that the American Idol judges—Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler—reacted positively to it. On the contrary, Jim Farber from New York Daily News considered the choice as risky and was thankful when Reinhart performed a more familiar song for her second round. On May 5, 2011, Reinhart's studio recording of "You and I" was released as a digital single to the iTunes Store, and also appeared on the compilation album American Idol Top 5 Season 10. Mansfield, who had initial misgivings about Reinhart as a singer, complimented her studio recording of the track, feeling that if Reinhart could "get another 10 songs this good when it comes time to cut the record, then all my initial misgivings about this girl will vanish into thin air."

British singer Amelia Lily covered the song in November 2011 during her time on UK talent show The X Factor. In November 15, 2011, comedy-drama musical TV series Glee featured a mash-up of Gaga's "You and I" and Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle's "You and I" in episode "Mash Off", performed by Matthew Morrison and Idina Menzel (respectively as their characters Will Schuester and Shelby Corcoran). The mash-up sold 23,000 digital downloads, and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 69, on the issue dated December 3, 2011.

Track listing

• Digital download

1. "Yoü and I" (Radio Edit) (Main)– 4:06
2. "Yoü and I" (Mark Taylor Radio Edit) – 3:55

• CD single

1. "Yoü and I" (Radio Edit) – 4:07
2. "Yoü and I" (Mark Taylor Radio Edit) – 3:56

• UK 7" Picture Disc

1. "Yoü and I" (Wild Beasts Remix) – 3:51
2. "Yoü and I" (Metronomy Remix) – 4:20

• You and I – The Remixes

1. "Yoü and I" (Wild Beasts Remix) – 3:51
2. "Yoü and I" (Mark Taylor Remix) – 5:02
3. "Yoü and I" (10 Kings Remix) – 4:29
4. "Yoü and I" (ATB Remix) – 8:08
5. "Yoü and I" (Metronomy Remix) – 4:20
6. "Yoü and I" (Danny Verde Remix) – 7:48
7. "Yoü and I" (Hector Fonseca Remix) – 8:03

Credits and personnel

Recording and management

• Recorded at Warehouse Productions (Omaha, Nebraska) and Allertown Hill (United Kingdom)
• Mastered at Oasis Mastering (Burbank, California)
• Contains elements of the composition "We Will Rock You", written by Brian May and sung by band Queen
• Published by Stefani Germanotta P/K/A Lady Gaga, Sony/ATV Songs LLC, House of Gaga Publishing Inc., GloJoe Music Inc. and Sony/ATV Music Publishing
• All rights on behalf of itself and Interscope Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
• Brian May appears courtesy of Hollywood Records (for US and Canada distribution) and Universal International (for worldwide distribution)

Personnel

• Lady Gaga – lead vocals, songwriter, producer, background vocals, piano and keyboards
• Robert John "Mutt" Lange – producer, background vocals, audio mixing
• Tom Ware and Horace Ward – recording
• Olle Romo – programming, recording
• Brian May – guitar
• Justin Shirley Smith – guitar recording
• Gene Grimaldi – audio mastering

Credits adapted from Born This Way album liner notes.

Charts and certifications

Charts

Chart (2011–12)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	14
Austrian Singles Chart	8
Belgian Tip Chart (Flanders)	4
Belgian Tip Chart (Wallonia)	4
Brazilian Hot 100 Airplay	19
Canadian Hot 100	10
Croatian Airplay Radio Chart	3
Czech Airplay Chart	26
French Singles Chart	98
German Singles Chart	21
Hungarian Airplay Chart	24
Irish Singles Chart	32
Israeli Airplay Chart	5
Italian Singles Chart	19
Japan Hot 100	8
Lebanese Singles Chart	5
Netherlands Single Top 100	83
New Zealand Singles Chart	5
Scottish Singles Chart	18
Slovak Airplay Chart	18
South Korea International Singles (Gaon)	66
Swiss Singles Chart	32
UK Singles Chart	23
US Billboard Hot 100	6
US Adult Contemporary	15
US Adult Pop Songs	6
US Hot Dance Club Songs	1
US Pop Songs	7
Venezuela Record Report	67

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
Australia (ARIA)	Gold	35,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	Gold	7,500
United States (RIAA)	3× Platinum	2,310,000
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Year-end charts

Chart (2011)	Position
Canadian Hot 100	65
Croatian Airplay Radio Chart	45
UK Singles Chart	170
US Billboard Hot 100	71
US Adult Pop Songs	41
US Hot Dance Club Songs	45
US Pop Songs	45
Chart (2012)	Position
US Adult Contemporary Songs	48

Release history

Country	Date	Format
United States	August 23, 2011	Mainstream radio
	September 20, 2011	Digital download – The Remixes
United Kingdom	September 18, 2011	Digital download
	September 26, 2011	7" Picture disc
Germany	September 30, 2011	CD single

See also

• List of number-one dance singles of 2011 (U.S.)

External links

• Official lyrics of "You and I" LadyGaga.com
• You and I (Official Video) on YouTube