[4] Gaga told MSNBC's Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry that "'You and I' was written about the most important person that I ever met",[5] allegedly Lüc Carl, her ex-boyfriend.

[8] The Calderone character made a previous appearance in June 2011, when Gaga posed as him in London for a series of photos by photographer Nick Knight, arranged by stylist Nicola Formichetti.

[10] A writer for Australia's The Daily Telegraph described the images as having a moody and scruffy look, and felt that Gaga had become "bored with being an outrageous woman and has decided to switch gender instead.

"[8] Rap-Up's David Jones commented that Gaga's Calderone character appearing on the cover looked similar to musician Bob Dylan.

[16] It was recorded by Tom Ware and Horace Ward at the Warehouse Productions Studio in Omaha, Nebraska, and Allerton Hill in the United Kingdom, respectively.

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.

"[23][24] Kitty Empire of The Guardian described the song as an "umlaut-toting digital country power ballad" with two Bruce Springsteen references: "born to run" and Nebraska.

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.

"[23] Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone called the song a confessional power ballad "with a torrid, Sturm und Drang vocal turn".

[27] 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'.

Conversely, she felt that the 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.

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 shoes 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.

[65] After revealing that the wedding dress shown in the video belonged to her mother, Gaga explained the scenes involving the ice cream truck.

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.

As the chorus begins for the second time, Gaga appears as Yüyi the Mermaid, with gills on her face and neck, as she lies in a tub filled with dirty water.

The video ends with Yüyi and the scientist together in the bath tub, as a depiction of their dream wedding flashes across, before a last shot of the barn as the screen turns black.

"[70] A Slant Magazine writer 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.

"[71] On September 1, 2011, Gaga announced on her Twitter account that she had shot five "fashion films" related to the song's music video with Dutch photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

The characters for each of the videos are: Jo Calderone (Gaga's alter ego), Yüyi (a mermaid), Nymph, Bride, and finally Barn Hooker and Mother.

Interspersed between are scenes portraying people dressed like Gaga, and appearances by Taylor Kinney, who was in the music video, and the singer's stylist Nicola Formichetti.

[75][76] It was next performed on the July 31, 2010, Phoenix stop of the Monster Ball Tour, where Gaga protested 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 had been affected by the law.

[77] 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.

[79][80] The song was on the set list of the HBO television special, Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden, which aired originally on May 7, 2011, in the United States.

– 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.

[95] In 2017, Gaga performed the song during both of her shows at the Coachella Festival,[96] and included it in her set at the Deep From the Heart: The One America Appeal benefit concert in Texas, where she joined former US presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and other performers in raising money to victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

[100] 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.

Len Melisurgo of The Star-Ledger considered it a risky choice, since the song had not been released, but accepted that Reinhart "sounded amazing" by hitting "some really high notes".

[104] On the contrary, Jim Farber of the New York Daily News considered the choice risky and was thankful when Reinhart performed a more familiar song for her second round.

[105] On May 5, 2011, Reinhart's studio recording of "You and I" was released as a digital single to the iTunes Store, and appeared on the compilation album American Idol Top 5 Season 10.

[107] On 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", performed by Matthew Morrison and Idina Menzel (as their respective characters Will Schuester and Shelby Corcoran) in the episode "Mash Off".