You and I Rick James: Three Charts, One 8-Minute Song
You and I Rick James wrote, produced, and sang almost single-handedly started as an eight-minute studio jam.
Radio stations were never going to play all eight minutes of it.
Motown cut it down to three minutes and eight seconds and released it as his debut single.
It then did something few 1978 records managed.
It hit the Billboard Hot 100, topped the R&B singles chart, and climbed the disco chart.
All three happened at once.
This is the real recording and chart story behind that song, verified against this site's own Billboard data.
A Minimoog, the workhorse bass synthesizer of 1970s funk and disco records.
Image credit: Photo by Andrew Russeth, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
You and I Rick James Built From an Eight-Minute Studio Jam
Rick James wrote "You and I" on his own.
He produced it with Art Stewart, a Motown staff producer.
Stewart had engineered records for Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder earlier in the decade.
The two of them recorded the track in 1977.
The sessions took place at Cross-Eyed Bear Studio in Clarence, New York, and at the Record Plant in New York City.
Both rooms became the working base for the rest of James's debut album, Come Get It!
A Crowded Session Behind One Song
James sang lead and played keyboards and synthesizers himself.
The credited session lineup around him was large, closer to a full band than a typical late-70s studio date.
- Keyboards: Levi Ruffin Jr., Billy Nunn, and Bobby Nunn.
- Guitar: Freddie Rappilo.
- Bass: Andy Rapillo and Richard Shaw.
- Drums: Lorenzo Shaw and Mike Caputy.
- Horns: Randy Jay Beckenstein on saxophone, Rick Bell on trombone, and Mike Brecker among additional horn players.
Extensive background vocals came from the Ruffins, the Nunns, and other singers on the date.
Much of this same group became the touring band James would soon call the Stone City Band.
You and I Rick James credited to a small solo name actually rested on a full room of players.
Rick James, billed as Rickey James Matthews, with the Mynah Birds in Detroit, January 1966.
That was more than a decade before his debut solo single.
Image credit: Photo by Burbankvideo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Version Radio Actually Played
The album cut of "You and I" runs 8:04.
That length gave the horn section and James's synthesizer line room to stretch into a real jam, closer to a live funk set than a radio single.
Stations in 1978 were not going to program an eight-minute record between commercial breaks.
Trimmed to Three Minutes and Eight Seconds
Motown cut the track down to a 3:08 single edit for release.
That edit came out March 26, 1978, on Gordy Records, Motown's funk and R&B subsidiary imprint.
It shipped with a song called "Hollywood" on the B-side.
The single arrived weeks before Come Get It! itself, which followed on April 20, 1978.
Listen to the song at You and I on this site's own 70s jukebox to hear how the shorter cut holds the groove together.
A Song That Hit Three Very Different Charts at Once
A pop chart hit, an R&B hit, and a disco hit are not usually the same record.
You and I Rick James managed all three during the same stretch of 1978.
| Chart | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Hot 100 | No. 13 |
| Billboard R&B Singles | No. 1 (two weeks) |
| Billboard Disco Chart | No. 3 |
Rolling Stone Heard the Synth-Bass Groove First
Rolling Stone's review of Come Get It! singled out the track for its "colossal synth-bass groove."
That groove is the same synthesizer-driven low end that later got tagged "punk funk," the label most associated with James's 1981 album, Street Songs.
On You and I Rick James had the sound fully in place three years earlier, on a debut single nobody outside Motown expected to cross over three separate charts.
This site's own year-end Billboard data confirms the song also landed at number 76 on the 1978 year-end Hot 100 recap, one of 1978's real chart survivors rather than a short-lived spring single.
See how it stacks up against the era's other crossover records with the Random 70s Song Generator.
How You and I Carried Come Get It! to Gold
Come Get It! reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 and number three on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
The Recording Industry Association of America certified it Gold in August 1978, based on 500,000 units shipped.
That certification rested almost entirely on two singles.
"You and I" opened the door in March, and "Mary Jane" followed that September to keep it open.
Eleven Years in the Making
Rick James had chased a Motown deal since 1966, when his first band, the Mynah Birds, signed to the label and lost the contract within weeks over an arrest.
Read the full account of that eleven-year gap in Rick James, this site's artist profile on his 1970s career.
By the time You and I Rick James released as a debut single reached radio, that wait was finally over.
The song also fits squarely inside the genre's bigger commercial picture covered in 70s Funk.
Match your own mood to a decade's worth of tracks with the Mood Song Matcher.
Explore more of the era at Music of the 70s.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Rick James release You and I?
Rick James released "You and I" on March 26, 1978, on Motown's Gordy Records imprint.
It was the debut solo single of his career, arriving several weeks ahead of his first album, Come Get It!
The B-side was a track called "Hollywood."
The single launched a solo career that had taken him more than a decade to get off the ground.
Who wrote and produced You and I?
Rick James wrote "You and I" himself and produced it with Art Stewart.
The pair recorded it in 1977 at Cross-Eyed Bear Studio in Clarence, New York, and at the Record Plant in New York City.
James also played vocals, keyboards, and synthesizers on the track, alongside a large session band that later formed his touring group.
How high did You and I chart on the Billboard Hot 100?
"You and I" reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978.
It performed even better on other charts, spending two weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B singles chart.
It also climbed to number three on Billboard's disco chart, a rare run across three different chart formats for one song.
Why is the single version of You and I so much shorter than the album version?
The album version of "You and I" on Come Get It! runs 8:04, built as an extended funk jam with room for the horn section and synthesizer to stretch out.
Radio stations of the era rarely played tracks that long.
Motown trimmed it down to a 3:08 single edit for the March 1978 release, cutting it to fit standard airplay length.
Did Rick James's album Come Get It! go platinum?
Come Get It! did not reach platinum status.
The Recording Industry Association of America certified it Gold in August 1978, based on 500,000 units shipped.
"You and I" and its follow-up single "Mary Jane" were the two songs that drove the album to that certification, Rick James's first as a solo Motown artist.
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