About The Song
In the fall of 1973 Lefty Frizzell teamed up with songwriter Sanger D. “Whitey” Shafer for a songwriting trip to Dallas Frazier’s cabin outside Nashville. The two men had only recently begun collaborating, but the session proved unusually productive. During the drive Frizzell and Shafer tossed around ideas until Shafer played a simple melody and opening line. When Frizzell responded with the offhand remark “Well, that’s the way love goes,” the title and central idea fell into place. Within the hour they finished the full song. On the same afternoon they also completed “I Never Go Around Mirrors,” another track that would become a signature piece for both writers.
That same night at Nashville’s Continental Inn Motel a casual guitar pull brought together Johnny Rodriguez, Merle Haggard, Dallas Frazier, Lewis Talley and Frizzell. As the gathering wound down Frizzell insisted on playing one last new song. He performed “That’s the Way Love Goes” for the room. Rodriguez was so taken with it that he recorded the track just days later on September 1. His version reached number one on the Billboard country chart in early 1974, giving the song its first major success before Frizzell had even released his own take.
Frizzell cut his recording on July 17 at Woodland Sound Studio in Nashville, with Don Gant producing and a top-tier band that included Grady Martin on guitar, Pete Drake on steel, and Hargus Robbins on piano. The finished track ran a compact one minute and fifty-one seconds on the album *The Legendary Lefty Frizzell*, released by ABC Records on September 18, 1973. It later appeared as the B-side to the single “I Never Go Around Mirrors” and climbed to number twenty-five on the Billboard country chart in the spring of 1974.
The song itself offers a gentle, almost philosophical acceptance of romance. Frizzell sings of love as something that arrives without warning, lingers for a while, then slips away again, yet somehow never grows old. Lines like “That’s the music God made for all the world to sing / It’s never old, it grows” capture a quiet wisdom earned from years on the road and in the spotlight. His warm, slightly slurred delivery and the understated steel-guitar lines give the performance the relaxed confidence that defined his later work.
Although Frizzell’s version was not a chart-topper on its own, the song quickly entered the standard repertoire. Merle Haggard, who had heard it that night at the motel, waited nearly a decade before recording his own slower, more introspective take. Released in 1983, Haggard’s recording topped the Billboard country chart in 1984 and earned him a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. Over the years more than twenty artists have cut the track, including Alan Jackson, each adding their own shading to the simple truth at its core.
By the time “That’s the Way Love Goes” appeared on *The Legendary Lefty Frizzell*, Frizzell had already stepped back from the constant touring that marked his early fame. The album and its companion *The Classic Style of Lefty Frizzell* captured him in mature voice, still capable of turning everyday observations into lasting country music. The song remains a quiet high point in his final chapter, a reminder of how one casual phrase spoken on a country road could become a standard that outlived its creators.
Video
Lyric
I’ve been throwing horseshoes
Over my left shoulder
I’ve spent most all my life
Searching for that four-leafed clover
Yet you ran with me
Chasing my rainbows
Honey, I love you, too
And that’s the way love goes
That’s the way love goes, babe
That’s the music God made
For all the world to sing
It’s never old, it grows
Losing makes me sorry
You say, “honey, now, don’t worry”
Don’t you know I love you too?
And that’s the way love goes
That’s the way love goes, babe
That’s the music god made
For all the world to sing
It’s never old, it grows
Losing makes me sorry
You say, “honey, don’t worry”
Don’t you know I love you too?
And that’s the way love goes, oh