“Wives and Lovers,” today’s classic song of the day, may be one of the most sexist songs ever written, but it was of its time. It’s all about what a wife has to do to keep her husband from straying, as you can see in these lyrics:
Hey, little girl
Comb your hair, fix your make-up
Soon he will open the door
Don’t think because
There’s a ring on your finger
You needn’t try any more
For wives should always be lovers, too
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you
I’m warning you
“Wives and Lovers” was a bouncy little jazz waltz written by the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Yeah, Hal’s lyrics were decidedly from a male chauvinist perspective, but that’s how things were back in the early ’60s, before free love and women’s lib and all that. Think Mad Men, and you have it right. Burt Bacharach himself said the song was “perfect illustration of social life in the ’60s, at least an aspect of it.”
Indeed it was.
Jack Jones recorded “Wives and Lovers” at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City, with an orchestra conducted by Pete King. Released in September of 1963 by Kapp Records, the single went to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male. Good for Mr. Jones.
By the way, you may remember a movie called Wives and Lovers that was also released in 1963. The film starred Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, Shelley Winters, Martha Hyer, and Ray Walston, and it’s about a wife thinking her playwright husband might be having an affair with his attractive (female) agent. (Spoiler alert: He’s not.) Burt and Hal wrote the song “Wives and Lovers” not for the film itself but rather to promote the film. It’s what some called a “tie-in” or “exploitation” song, much like the duo’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” was for that earlier film.
And, just to make your day, here’s a very suave Jack Jones singing “Wives and Lovers” live back in 1964. Love the tux.
