It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for physical shipments of 100,000 units in that region.

An accompanying music video was directed by Masashi Muto; it features Hamasaki in a winter wonderland.

[2] The song's instrumentation includes guitars, drums, strings, pianos, and subtle synthesizers.

[2] The song was recorded in late-2009 by Koji Morimoto, Masashi Hashimoto, Yuichi Nagayama at Prime Sound and Avex Studios, in Tokyo, Japan.

Additional recording was handled by Dom Morley and Phill Brown at Metropolis and Sarm Studios in London, United Kingdom.

[2] "You Were..." was released as an a-side single with album track "Ballad" in four different formats on December 29, 2009 by Avex Trax.

[10] The first format was a Maxi CD; this includes the original versions of "You Were...", "Ballad", and another album track "Red Line (For TA)".

Each box set includes a post card with Hamasaki's logo on it and a bonus poster.

[9] Tetsuo Hiraga from Hot Express was positive towards the single, calling it a "ballad that had drawn warmth" within its lyrics.

[4] A staff member from CD Journal was positive towards the track, calling it a "unique" romantic ballad.

[5] However, Asian Junkie editor Random J reviewed Rock 'n' Roll Circus on his personal blog, as was negative towards the song.

"[7] Alexey Eremenko from Allmusic was fairly similar in his review, stating "The ballads are the worst offenders in this [album], but it's easy to tune out on the rest of the songs as well, despite all of their bombast.

It lasted thirteen weeks on the top 200 chart, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for physical shipments of 100,000 units in that region.