Songfacts®:

• With a lyric by Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer, "That Is Why" is about a guy ready to call off a toxic relationship. He's become dependent on her, which is why it's gone on so long, but now it's time to end it. Sturmer is a fan of Elvis Costello, whose influence is clear on lines like "It's partly cloudy with trouser stains."
• Jellyfish keyboard player Roger Manning wrote the music. In a Songfacts interview, he explained how it came together: "Andy had the chorus idea, and he didn't know where to take it. But he believed in it and I believed in it when he played it for me. And I got inspired to help create that verse and the bridge and we finished the song structure itself in a 30-minute writing session, because we were both so excited in the core of the idea. And then demoing it and arranging it, that was a whole other can of worms to crack it open."
• This was Jellyfish's second single, following "The King Is Half-Undressed." It got some airplay on Modern Rock radio and earned some spins on MTV with the Rocky Schenck-directed video, but Jellyfish was pushing against the tides of grunge with their multi-layered pop sound, and they never landed a big hit. The group released just two albums before breaking up in 1994.