"That's the Way Love Goes" is a song by American singer Janet Jackson from her fifth studio album, janet.(1993). Released as the album's lead single in April 1993, the Grammy Award-winning song became Jackson's biggest number-one single ever in the United States, staying atop the Hot 100 for eight weeks.

"That's the Way Love Goes", written and produced by Jackson and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, contains a sample of James Brown's 1974 number-one R&B hit "Papa Don't Take No Mess". As the lead single from janet., the mood was a stark contrast to her previous album Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814. Jackson was not excited about the track the first time she heard it, so Jam and Lewis gave her a tape of it just as she was leaving for a Christmas vacation in 1992 and asked her to listen to it for a couple of weeks. When she returned in January 1993, she told the producers, "You know that track you did? I love it. It's absolutely the bomb", according to Billboardmagazine. Jackson came up with the title, and the first draft had the lovelorn tone one would expect from such a title. Then she called Jam at two in the morning to tell him she was taking a different direction, casting the lyrics in a more seductive light. "If" was the original choice for the lead single by Virgin. However, Jam and Lewis argued otherwise. "Everybody was talking about", says Jam. "To me, your first single should say, 'Welcome to the album. If you like this, check out the rest.' And we really felt 'That's the Way Love Goes' was in keeping with the spirit of the rest of the album. And since it went to number one, we proved that we were right!" "If" was eventually released as the second single from the album.

In 1994, the track earned Jackson her second Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, and was also nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

Since then, the song has been covered by Norman Brown, 'N Sync, Chantay Savage, Deborah Cox, and Brownstone.

Jackson performed the song as a medley with "If" at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards; the audio recording of which appears on the limited edition double disc edition of janet.A remix of the song entitled CJ FXTC Club Mix appears on her 1995 remix album janet. Remixed.

Jackson has performed the song on all of her tours, including the janet. Tour, The Velvet Rope Tour, All for You Tour, and Rock Witchu Tour.

"That's the Way Love Goes" was ranked number 427 on Blender's list of The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.

"That's the Way Love Goes" is set in common time with a key of G minor. Jackson's vocal chords ranges between the tonal nodes of high-tone F ₃to low-tone Bb ₄. The song is in a medium tempo of 100 beats per minute with the chord progression being set like Am–E–Gb.

"That's the Way Love Goes" debuted at number fourteen on the U.S. Hot 100. Two weeks later, a day before Jackson's twenty-seventh birthday, May 16, 1993 it became Jackson's sixth number one on the Hot 100, eleventh number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and ninth number one on the Hot Dance Club Play. The single is also Jackson's biggest hit on the Hot 100 Airplay, where it spent ten weeks at number one. This song is Jackson's most successful single in the U.S. to date. Internationally, it reached number one in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; the top five in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland; and the top ten in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland. The song also went on to top the European Hot 100 Singles chart because of its high peaks across Europe.

The video was directed by Jackson's ex-husband René Elizondo, Jr. in March 1993. Set in a loft, Jackson is depicted amongst her friends who persuade her to play her new song. Jackson performs the song, being interrupted by Tish who pauses it to tell her, "Yo, this is slamming!" Tish plays the tape and everyone there begins to dance along to it. The video also features then-unknown Jennifer Lopez as Jackson's backup dancer. "That's the Way Love Goes" was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards in 1993: Best Female Video, Best Dance Video, and Best Choreography. The video is featured on the 1994 compilation janet., the 1996 compilation Design of a Decade, the limited bonus-DVD edition of 2001's All for You, and 2004's From janet. to Damita Jo: The Videos.

An alternate version of the video, the One Take Version, is set in the same hotel room and is a single take focusing solely on Jackson. It appears exclusively on the 1994 VHS video compilation janet.

N*SYNC paid tribute to the video exclusively on MTV Icon, where they covered a shortened version of the song in a similar setting.