Songfacts®:

• "You And I" was the first single from Rick James, one of the innovators of funk. It's an uptempo love song with lots of groove, a sign of things to come for James. It's very chaste by his standards, although he did slip in the line "You and I will be together until the six is nine." His later songs like "Give It To Me Baby" and "Super Freak" got a lot more raunchy but were just as funky musically.
• James wrote this song about his first wife, Kelly Misener. He didn't keep his promise in the song, "you and me are going to be together eternally." The couple split about a year after it was released.
• The song was released in 1978 on Rick James' debut album, Come Get It! By this time, he was 34 and had lots of miles on him: He had been in a band with Neil Young (The Mynah Birds), done time in Navy prison for going AWOL, and worked at Motown as a writer and producer. When Motown signed him as an artist in 1977, they had a very aging roster with acts like The Temptations and The Four Tops still hanging around. James brought a fresh sound that helped the label push forward into the '80s.
• "You And I" was a #1 R&B hit for Rick James and also rose to #13 on the Hot 100. His next single was "Mary Jane," his tribute to marijuana. Over the next few years, James became one of biggest and most dynamic stars in the world of funk and R&B, but he never really crossed over to a mainstream (meaning white) audience, in part because MTV wouldn't play his videos. He had three more #1 hits on the R&B chart but "You And I" was the highest he got on Hot 100 at #13.
• On the album, the song stretches to 8:04. The single is cut down to 3:08.