It has been recorded by numerous male and female vocalists, instrumentalists and ensembles.
[3][better source needed] "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".
In the first line, the everywoman wife is addressed "Hey little girl", before a "warning" to "fix your make up" and "run to his [i.e., her husband's] arms the moment he comes home to you."
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.
Similarly, the song "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance", which Bacharach and David wrote in 1962, promoted, but was not featured in, the film of the same name.