George Harrison wrote "That's the Way It Goes" and other songs for his Gone Troppo album during a period when his interest in contemporary popular music had diminished[REF][REF] in favour of a part-time career as a film producer, with the success of his company HandMade Films [REF].
In his book on Harrison for the Praeger Singer-Songwriter series, Ian Inglis groups "That's the Way It Goes" with the title track to Gone Troppo and "Mystical One" as songs that offer "a clear insight into his frame of mind" at this time [REF].