Chet Atkins played guitar on "Apples Dipped in Candy" and Bergen White arranged the strings on the album.

The period leading up to the recording of Lovers was not a good one for Newbury; his father had suffered a stroke, he had endured painful back surgery and had been hospitalized for pneumonia, and he was drinking heavily.

[3] AllMusic's Tom Jurek, who compares the album to Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, writes, "It's as if he's trying, through hard country, blues, gospel, R&B, lounge jazz, folk balladry, and even rock, to plead, beg, borrow, and scheme his way (apparently unsuccessfully) from under the bleak cloud that surrounds him.

"[This quote needs a citation] The album was produced by Chip Young, who had helmed Newbury's previous release I Came to Hear the Music, and was recorded at Youngun Sound Studios in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The title track's evocative line, "To think they once tore down a wall for a door" was inspired, by songwriter Hank Cochran, who lived in an adjoining apartment to country singer Jeannie Seely and, having grown tired of going into the hall to knock on her door, cut a hole through the wall with a chainsaw.