That's The Way Love Goes

That's the Way Love Goes — Janet Jackson's Velvet Takeover

The Arrival of a New Chapter

There are pop moments that feel like events even before the record reaches radio, and the release of That's the Way Love Goes in the spring of 1993 was precisely that. Janet Jackson had spent the late 1980s and early 1990s redefining what a pop star could be, working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to create albums that fused R&B, dance, and a disciplined social consciousness into something entirely their own. Control in 1986 announced her independence. Rhythm Nation 1814 in 1989 proved the ambition was real and backed it with commercial results that few artists in any era could match. By 1993, she was returning with a new contract, reported to be the largest recording contract in history at that time, and the first single from the resulting album, janet., needed to justify every cent of it.

The Sound of Warmth and Surrender

The track drew its DNA from a James Brown sample, specifically the 1970 recording Maybe the Last Time, filtered through the production sensibility that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had spent years developing into something unmistakable. The result was warm, languid, deeply sensual. After years of albums that carried considerable social and political weight, That's the Way Love Goes was Janet turning toward pleasure, toward intimacy, toward the private rather than the public. The production wrapped her vocal in a haze of subdued keyboards and unhurried rhythm, creating a mood of complete ease. She was not chasing a hit. She was choosing a feeling and inviting an audience to share it. This was not an artist trying to prove anything. She had already proved it.

Straight to the Top

The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 1, 1993, entering at an extraordinary position 14, a debut that signaled the level of anticipation surrounding the release. By May 15, 1993, it had reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, climbing only one week from position 2. It held that position for eight consecutive weeks, one of the longest runs at the peak that year, and remained on the chart for 23 weeks in total. The song won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, confirming its stature within the industry to match its commercial dominance on the street.

The Album It Launched

janet. became one of the defining albums of the decade, a record that demonstrated how fully an artist could own a cultural moment. The album debuted at number 1 and sold at a pace that justified the enormous commercial expectations surrounding it. Its combination of sensuality and artistic control, of vulnerability and self-possession, reflected Jackson's creative partnership with Jam and Lewis at its most refined. That's the Way Love Goes set the tone for everything that followed, signaling that this album would prioritize feeling over statement. That proved to be exactly what the audience wanted in the spring of 1993.

The Lasting Weight of a Perfect Single

Some number-one hits are remembered primarily as chart facts. That's the Way Love Goes is remembered as a sonic experience, a specific texture and temperature that listeners return to deliberately. The record has over 112 million YouTube views, and its influence on the R&B music that followed through the 1990s and into the 2000s is audible across decades of music made in its wake. Its ease became a template. Janet Jackson's ability to project relaxed authority without losing warmth turned out to be something other artists would spend years trying to replicate with only partial success. Press play and feel the temperature in the room change.

“That's the Way Love Goes” — Janet Jackson's singular moment on the 1990s charts.