simon acknowledged that taylor helped "with a lot of the changes" after she had written the original lyrics and music. taylor claimed that he told simon that he liked everything except the original third verse; simon replaced the verse and taylor approved. simon took the line "loving you is the right thing to do", which gave the song its title, from the movie "the last picture show". allmusic critic joe viglione and "billboard" both praised the song's production by producer richard perry. viglione also comments on simon's "heartfelt" vocal performance. simon accompanies herself on piano, and other instrumentation includes bass guitar, drums, congas, horns, and strings. vicki brown and liza strike also provide backing vocals. "billboard" considered the "light horn backing" to be particularly effective in making the song catchy.