Songfacts®:

• This ballad is about the pressures of being the man of the house. Flowers acknowledged to NME that it is a fairly old-fashioned concern. "Being the man and the provider is something nobody touches on," he said. "I'm really proud of it, though."
• Bruce Hornsby plays keys on this song.Brandon Flowers told The Sun: "Bruce plays on 'Never Get You Right' and 'Between Me and You,' which was a real honor and 'The Way It Is' is one of those songs from my childhood that you still love into your teens but as a teenager, you have your musical identity so you never tell anyone that you love it."
  
  "I'm not the greatest piano player in the world so we just called him up and asked him to play," he added. "We didn't get to meet but we talked about Vegas, his solo stuff and how he's doing the last couple of gigs with the Grateful Dead."