Wives and Lovers

"Wives and Lovers" is a 1963 song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It has been recorded by numerous male and female vocalists, instrumentalists and ensembles, most notably by Jack Jones in 1963. That recording earned the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male,[1] and peaked at number fourteen on the Hot 100 and number nine on the Easy Listening chart.[2]

"Wives and Lovers" is a song of advice to married women, to stay attractive and attentive to their husbands ("wives should always be lovers, too") to avoid their husbands straying with "girls at the office". The song originated when Bacharach and David were asked to write a song with the title "Wives and Lovers", on the theme of marital infidelity, as a promotional tie-in for the 1963 film Wives and Lovers. The song did not appear in the film but was intended simply to promote the film; which made it what was known at the time as an "exploitation song". Similarly, the song "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," which Bacharach and David wrote in 1962, promoted, but was not featured in, the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.[3]