Songfacts®:

• This was the third Top 40 hit for Clarence Carter, a blind musician from Alabama who sings on this track about a girl who has been hurt before and won't give him her love. Carter wrote the song with George Jackson, who wrote a song with a similar theme not long after: "One Bad Apple," which was a hit for The Osmonds.
  
  Carter recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Jackson was a staff songwriter. Carter says he came in with the idea for the song, but Jackson was able to finish it. According to Carter, Jackson would commute to Muscle Shoals from Memphis, taking a suitcase full of beer with him, since Muscle Shoals was in a dry county.
• According to Carter, the women in his life snatched back more than their love. He liked to joke that his hits, "Slip Away," "Patches" and "Snatching It Back" each made a million dollars, and that money all went to his first, second and third wives.
• This song was originally called "How Can I Get It When You Keep Snatching It Back," and was much more sexual in nature. FAME Studios owner Rick Hall insisted they change the title so it had a better chance of getting airplay. This caused some tension in the studio, as Carter had to rework the song. Most of the band breaked for lunch, and when they came back, Carter had the song worked out.