Their first session together yielded a number one single: “You Take Me For Granted,” (written by Merle’s wife Leona Williams), but Baker was frustrated when subsequent sessions took up huge chunks of time without results. Ray had the utmost regard for Haggard’s band “The Strangers” as musicians, but they didn’t get in a hurry about things. Baker was used to getting a certain budget from the record company and utilizing the time wisely, being very frugal with the money being spent. That included getting down to business in the studio and no horsing around, a message which Ray couldn’t seem to convey to the band.
So Baker persuaded Merle to use a group of more-efficient studio musicians for the session. Surprisingly, that was no problem. He agreed to that. What was really tough was getting Haggard to come in at 10:00 a. m. to record. Merle’s normal habits were to record at night and sleep late the next morning. Haggard had an apartment on Old Hickory Lake, just northeast of Nashville, and Baker told him that he would personally drive out there, pick him up and bring him down to the studio. Ray’s intentions were to get Merle into the studio while his band members were still asleep so they wouldn’t be around to distract him.
The tactic worked. Haggard cut three songs from beginning to end in about two hours and twenty minutes. Even Merle was amazed at how smoothly it came off. One of the three songs recorded that day was “That’s The Way Love Goes,” which landed at number one on Billboard’s country singles chart on February 11, 1984. It also brought Haggard his very first Grammy for “Best Country Vocal Performance by a Male.”