“You Are the One” was written by Leon Payne, the blind Texas songwriter behind a long string of country standards. Payne recorded it in the mid-1950s, and it became a hit for Carl Smith.
The song is a plain declaration of love. The singer tells the one he loves that she is the one — the only one for him — and the lyric carries the steady warmth of a settled, certain devotion.
The song crossed easily into bluegrass. The version heard here is by Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys.