The song was written by the song's producer Harmony Samuels, alongside Amber Streeter, Al Sherrod Lambert, Jordin Sparks, Brenda Russell, and Mac Miller, who is featured in the song.
"The Way" was released on March 25, 2013 by Republic Records as the lead single from Yours Truly.
The song's backing track is based on the piano melody from Russell's 1979 song "A Little Bit of Love", and the song has melodic and lyrical similarities to Big Pun's 1998 song "Still Not a Player", which also samples "A Little Bit of Love".
In the United States the song debuted at No. 10 and peaked at No. 9 on U.S. Billboard Hot 100 becoming Grande and Miller's first top ten song on the chart.
This made Grande the first top 10 arrival for a lead female artist making her first Hot 100 appearance since Yael Naim, who launched with "New Soul" back in 2008.