Nelson George said that combined with the cultural and commercial backlash against what was perceived as disco led to a lack of crossover appeal to pop charts for black artists and revealed "how powerful a force semantics can be in the reception of pop music."
Charts "You're the One for Me" first
charted on December 19, 1981, at number 53 on the
Billboard Disco Top 80 chart. The song was number one for three consecutive weeks from January 30 to February 13, 1982. By April it still remained on the charts. In the United Kingdom, the single was released by
Epic Records and first charted on February 6, 1982. It charted for 8 weeks, peaking at number 30. A remixed version of the track also charted in 1985 in the United Kingdom released by Prelude Records. It entered the charts on July 27, 1985. It charted for 11 weeks and peaked at number 15. Paul Hardcastle's single version released on Total Control Records entered the UK charts on April 7, 1984, for four weeks and peaked at 41.
Critical reception In contemporary reviews, two reviews in the
NME dismissed "You're the One For Me". First, with Penny Reel of
NME described it as "standard dance floor fodder" that was only distinguished by "some inventive vibraphone passes and throaty vocals."
Gavin Martin later reviewed it for the publication, describing it as inexplicably being a top disco seller that was "numbingly ordinary and predictable." Other reviews were more positive, with Richard Grabel of
NME later found both "You're The One for Me" and
Secret Weapon's "Must Be the Music" as examples of how the "street-funk left wing is forcing the disco mainstream to toughen up, get funkier and harder and more beat oriented." He found "Must Be the Music" to be superior, but highlighted that D-Train's synthesizer riff would "hook you in" and the vocals were "big, loud and bold, keeps you there." Milo Miles of
The Boston Phoenix gave the single a four out of four star rating, saying that it "zooms through the junction so loudly that only a truly iron-pumping band could sing above it." From retrospective reviews,
Nelson George wrote in his book
The Death of Rhythm and Blues (1989) that in the eighties, song writing in the 1980s "went right down the toilet as the balance between riff and melody went awry." He found that new technologies such as synthesizers did not make the music better. George wrote that "D" Train's "You're the One for Me" alongside "
Love Come Down" by
Evelyn King as being the rare exceptions to the keyboard-based production of the R&B music of the era that had "words of lyrical and melodic interest" as several other songs had "the personality and warmth of a microwave." Daryl Easlea from
BBC wrote, "their mixture of electronics and emotion led to some compelling moments, most notably their calling card and most enduring anthem, "You're the One for Me". With its sequenced handclaps, thundering synth bass and its fluttery, repetitive electronic melody, the song is enlivened by Williams' throaty delivery." He also notes on the
gospel touch of Williams' singing, "[w]hen he sings the repeated refrain of 'With the love I have inside of me, we could turn this world around,' over the breakdown, it is like the world's most charismatic preacher encapsulating the remarkable purity and longing of the first flush of true love." James Arena, in his book
Legends of Disco (2016) wrote that "You're the One for Me" "helped move disco out of its overkill-induced slump into a new dimension of funky energy." Needs writing in
Record Collector said the song "splintered the disco door on both sides of the Atlantic with the sleek inner-city momentum.", specifically finding Kervorkian's 12" remix made the song into "pure dancefloor demolition." ==Aftermath and influence==