Written as a satire on the British upper class, the song was inspired by Ray Davies's interest in music hall and scorn for wealthy tourists he encountered on a 1965 vacation.

After a disappointing American tour, Ray was sent by Kinks managers Grenville Collins and Robert Wace to a resort in Torquay, where upper-class guests, who knew of his musical career, tried to coax him into joining them for a golf game.

However, Davies later said that this was not intended: I had naively meant a fag to either be slang for a cigarette or, at worst, that the well-respected man had been at public school, where [he performed] the most humiliating tasks.

Indeed, the song offers a satirical[9] commentary on the entrenched mores and conventions of the English upper and middle classes, while hinting at the frustration and casual hypocrisy that underlie this fastidiously maintained veneer of respectability.

The sales of [Kwyet Kinks] and the radio exposure received by the song, even in competition with "Till the End of the Day", suggest most forcibly that it would have been a pre-Christmas number 1.

[12] Pye refused to release "A Well Respected Man" as a single in the UK because the record company wanted a song more similar to the band's raunchier previous hits.

Ray considered releasing more EPs in the satirical vein of "A Well Respected Man" following the success, but ultimately decided not to given the other commitments the band had.

[9] On the back of the success of Kwyet Kinks in the UK, Reprise Records, the band's American label, released as the song as a single in the United States during October of that same year.

[17] The Independent wrote, "It was the first of many acutely observed character studies, and offered hints of the music hall influence that would permeate Ray’s future work".