| That's the Way Love Goes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 1983 | |||
| Recorded | January/March 1983 at Woodland Sound Studio and Eleven Sound Studio, Nashville, Tennessee | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 32:00 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Merle Haggard, Ray Baker | |||
| Merle Haggard chronology | ||||
| ||||
That's the Way Love Goes is the thirty-eighth studio album by the American country music singer Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1983.
Haggard had loved Lefty Frizzell's "That's the Way Love Goes" since he first heard the song and tried recording it towards the end of his time with Capitol Records in the mid-1970s with unsatisfactory results. That version, which can be found on the box set Hag: The Studio Recordings 1969-1976, is more lighthearted and whimsical than the one Haggard recorded in 1983. The song topped the Billboard country singles chart, as did "Someday When Things Are Good," a song co-written by Haggard and his wife Leona Williams. It also proved to be prophetic, as the couple divorced that year. Williams had also written Haggard's recent hit "You Take Me For Granted", but Williams, who replaced Haggard's previous wife Bonnie Owens in the Strangers, had creative aspirations of her own that her husband did not always appreciate. As Haggard wrote in his 1981 autobiography Sing Me Back Home, "I'd reached the point in my career where I felt in charge of my music...When Leona tried to make a suggestion, I resented it. She resented my resentment. So it went. She kept saying she felt like an outsider...I couldn't understand why she got so upset by the press leaning toward good ol' Bonnie and the snide remarks about Leona coming in and breaking up my 'happy home.'" [1] The divorce instigated a personal landslide for Haggard, who spent the rest of the decade losing himself in alcohol and drugs, although initially it did not prevent him from having #1 hits. As he recalled in his 1999 autobiography House of Memories, "I roared right through the 1980s, running and drugging the nights away, making bad decisions while under the influence of various substances."[ citation needed ]That's The Way Love Goes was his third hit LP for Epic in two years, not counting two separate duet albums with George Jones and Willie Nelson. While discussing his own song "Bad Boy" in the liner notes to Great Days: The John Prine Anthology, John Prine admitted, "Around that time, I fell under the spell of Merle Haggard's songwriting. There was a period when he seemed to be churning out some really great stuff. He was bringing out great albums every six or eight months, and I considered 'Bad Boy' sort of in the vein of what he was doing."
Overall, That's The Way Love Goes offers a more laid back feel than Haggard's later LPs, demonstrating his emotive vocal range on several ballads like "What Am I Gonna Do (With the Rest of My Life)", which peaked at number 3 and appears to reflect the turmoil with Williams, as does the lilting yet bitter "If You Hated Me". Other tracks have the bright pop sound that was becoming more predominate on country albums in the 1980s, such as "I'm Carrying Fire" and the jazzy "The Last Boat of the Day". The album's closing track, "I Think I'll Stay", sounds like an after hours blues jam as Haggard croons, "Think I'll stay around till I'm sick of home sweet home..." The album peaked at number 8 on the Billboard country albums chart.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [2] |
Matt Fink of AllMusic rated the album "another decent collection of laidback ballads that lets Haggard display some of the full range of his vocal talents". John Morthland of Amazon.com, wrote, "Here's one of the great, lost Haggard albums... The tone is bleak, funereal, without a single uptempo stomp to break up the succession of one beautiful, heartbreaking ballad after another." At the Grammy Awards of 1985, That's the Way Love Goes won the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
That's the Way Love Goes was reissued on CD by DCC Compact Classics in 2000, and reissued again with Going Where the Lonely Go on CD by S & P Records in 2005. [3]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "What Am I Gonna Do (With the Rest of My Life)" | Merle Haggard | 3:35 |
| 2. | "(I'm Gonna Paint Me) A Bed of Roses" | Haggard, Bobby Whitson | 2:11 |
| 3. | "Someday When Things Are Good" | Haggard, Leona Williams | 3:38 |
| 4. | "That's the Way Love Goes" | Lefty Frizzell, Sanger D. Shafer | 3:04 |
| 5. | "Carryin' Fire" | Red Lane, Jim Ray, Sam Beck | 2:55 |
| 6. | "Don't Seem Like We've Been Together All Our Lives" | Haggard | 2:56 |
| 7. | "If You Hated Me" | Haggard, Lane, Dean Holloway | 2:42 |
| 8. | "Love Will Find You" | Haggard | 2:36 |
| 9. | "The Last Boat of the Day" | Hank Cochran, Lane | 3:40 |
| 10. | "I Think I'll Stay" | Haggard | 4:43 |
with:
and:
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Merle Ronald Haggard was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.
A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World is the eleventh studio album by Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1970.
Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again is a studio album by American country music artists George Jones and Merle Haggard, released in 2006.
Heroes & Friends is the sixth studio album by American country music artist Randy Travis. It was released on August 31, 1990 by Warner Records. Except for the title track, every song on this album is a duet with another recording artist. "A Few Ole Country Boys" and the title track were both released as singles from this album, peaking at numbers 8 and 3, respectively, on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1990.
Big City is the thirty-third studio album by American country music artist Merle Haggard backed by the Strangers, released in 1981. It was his debut on the Epic label after ending his association with MCA. Big City peaked at number three on the Billboard Country Album charts and number 161 on the Pop Album charts. It is an RIAA-certified Gold album.
Going Where the Lonely Go is the thirty-fifth studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1982.
Back to the Barrooms is the thirty-first studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard, released in October 1980. He is backed by Norm Hamlet and Don Markham of The Strangers.
Let Me Tell You About a Song is the fourteenth studio album by American country singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1972. It reached No. 7 on the Billboard Country album chart and #166 on the Pop album chart. The lead-off singles were "Grandma Harp" and "Daddy Frank " — both reached No. 1.
It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad) is the fifteenth studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1972. It reached number one on the Billboard country albums chart. The lead off single was "It's Not Love (But it's Not Bad)" which also reached No. 1 on the charts.
I Love Dixie Blues is a live album by American country singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1973.
If We Make It Through December is the sixteenth studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1974. It reached number 4 on the Billboard country album charts. The title track was previously released on Haggard's Christmas release of 1973, A Christmas Present. The single spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart in December 1973 and January 1974, and cracked the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100. "If We Make It Through December" was the No. 2 song of the year on Billboard's Hot Country Singles 1974 year-end chart.
Ramblin' Fever is the twenty-second studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard, released in 1977. It was his first on the MCA label after recording for Capitol Records since 1965. It was also his first album without crediting The Strangers. It reached Number 5 on the Country album chart. Ramblin' Fever was reissued on CD in 2002.
My Farewell to Elvis is the twenty-seventh studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard, released in 1977 and his second release for MCA Records. It reached Number 6 on the Country album chart. The single "From Graceland to the Promised Land" reached number 4 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. The album is a tribute to the music of Elvis Presley, who died on August 16, 1977. He is backed by Roy Nichols, Ronnie Reno, and Mark Yeary of The Strangers.
Songs for the Mama That Tried is the thirty-second studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard with backing by The Strangers, released in 1981. A Gospel album, it reached Number 46 on the Billboard country albums chart.
"Someday When Things Are Good' is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard. It was released in March 1984 as the third single from his album That's the Way Love Goes. The song was Haggard's thirty-first number one country single as a solo artist. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of thirteen weeks on the country chart. Haggard wrote the song with then-wife Leona Williams.
I Am What I Am is the sixty-second studio album by American country music artist Merle Haggard. It was released on April 20, 2010 by Vanguard Records. The album peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
Heart to Heart is a duet album by Merle Haggard and Leona Williams with backing by the Strangers, released in June 1983 on Mercury Records. It reached number 44 on the Billboard Country music chart.
The Epic Collection (Recorded Live) is a live album by Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers released on Epic Records in November 1983.
Kern River is the fortieth studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard backed by The Strangers, released in 1985. It reached number 8 on the Billboard country albums chart.
Seashores of Old Mexico is a studio album by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. It is a sequel to their enormously successful 1983 duet album Pancho and Lefty and was released in 1987. They are backed by The Strangers. The only charting single was a cover of a 1979 Blaze Foley song, "If I Could Only Fly", which peaked at number 58 on the 1987 Billboard Hot Country Songs singles chart.
