That's the Way Love Goes

That's the Way Love Goes is the twenty-second solo studio album by American country singer Connie Smith. It was released in March 1974 on Columbia Records and contained 11 tracks. The album included both original material and covers of songs first recorded by other music artists. Two singles were released from the album. "Ain't Love a Good Thing" reached the top ten of the American country songs chart and became her nineteenth top ten single in her career. Background Connie Smith had 18 top ten country chart singles between 1964 and 1973 at the RCA Victor label. She signed with Columbia Records in 1973 where she continued to have commercial success, but with less frequency. At Columbia, Smith made two studio albums with producer George Richey. However, their professional endeavors ended in creative differences and Smith sought out Ray Baker to record her next Columbia project titled That's the Way Love Goes. At the time of the album's making, Smith was pregnant with her first daughter and she was not able to record a full-length project. Instead, the label brought forward three songs from studio sessions Smith had cut several months earlier. Recording and content That's the Way Love Goes was recorded at Columbia Studio B, which was located in Nashville, Tennessee. Ray Baker produced a majority of the album's sessions, with Richey serving as a producer on the three-previously cut songs. Smith entered the studio to record the project on September 19, 1973. Only one song, "Be All Right in Arkansas", was used for the album. She also went in on October 30 and October 31, 1973 to finish the album. All songs recorded during the latter two sessions were used on the project. Columbia pulled "Ain't Love a Good Thing" (produced by George Richey) from her first session with the label on January 22, 1973. They also took "The Wonders You Perform" from a session on May 15, 1973. "The Baptism of Jesse Taylor" was taken from a June 1973 session and was first released on her 1973 album, God Is Abundant. Baker and Smith chose the album's material together. According to Baker himself, the demonstration version of the song would be played for the musicians at the recording session and three songs would be recorded over three hours. The project consisted of 11 tracks in total. Among the album's new material was "My Uncle Abel", which biographer Barry Mazor described as "Cajun-influenced" and as a "family saga song".