Re: Wives and Lovers. Sadly, the public has forgotten that this was released as a movie exploitation song - but that's what happens when 40+ years pass by. The song was just meant to be catchy - and to remind listeners every time it's played that, "Hey, there's a new movie coming out called Wives and Lovers - see it!" But there was worry at first, because some radio stations were playing the other side of the 45 by mistake - the beautiful Toys in the Attic - which was more representative of the Jack Jones that fans had come to know. Wives and Lovers earned Jack plenty of money and fame, plus his Grammy, but not without consequence. Jack himself has often stated that he didn't deserve to win a Grammy for that particular performance, plus it led many to brand him a lounge singer (as did the Love Boat Theme many years later). And he's never won another Grammy since, even with the many superlative Kapp LPs he recorded that followed Wives and Lovers.
I have to admit that I LOVE this original recording. Once the great Pete King arrangement begins, and Jack's breezy vocals get started, I'm hooked! Jones' version is the only one I care to own, because its light-handed approach seems truest to what Bacharach & David wrote it to be.
But, yes, the words "little girl" and "little" sure were used a lot in old songs describing women.
Remember when Vic Damone had two songs - featured consecutively on the same album - called Little Girl (which was a big hit for him) and I Want a Little Girl?
And Sinatra's legendary recording of I've Got You Under My Skin featured the line, "Don't you know, little fool, you never can win?" When Frank re-recorded the song in the 60s, he dropped the "little." Maybe it was the frequent airplay of Wives and Lovers that finally led this phrase to be retired.
Here's another curiosity among old pop lyrics, involving Jack Jones' rendition of It Never Entered My Mind. These words were rewritten for Jack, for some unexplained reason:
Sinatra sang these lyrics:
Once you warned me, that if you scorned me, I'd say a lonely prayer again.
And wish that you were there again, to get into my hair again.
Jones sang the same verse like this:
I confess it, I didn't guess it, that I would sit and mope again.
And all the while I'd hope again, to see my
darling dope again.
Jack manages to make this phrase sound convincingly endearing, yet you wonder . . why were the lyrics changed to this? Personally, I just find these old lyrics silly, and don't take them seriously. . but obviously, Gloria Steinem would strongly disagree with me.
