Songfacts®:

• There is a famous 1962 film called What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, but this song has nothing to do with it. The story in the song, which Stewart made up, is about a girl who leaves him when she enters high society. He lets her know she won't get another chance - the next girl he falls in love with will be his last.
• Released as the lead single from Rod Stewart's Body Wishes album, this was his most successful single since "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" in 1978, topping the UK singles chart and also peaking at #14 in America.
• Stewart penned the lyrics to music written by his bass guitarist Jay Davis. Speaking with The Guardian, the singer admitted he puts writing the words off until the last minute, "when the song's got a hook." Stewart added: "The way I do it is hum and hah along while the band are playing. I sing whatever comes into my head and nine times out of 10 that will be the title of the song. Either that or I'd just write down a good title - like 'Young Turks' or 'Baby Jane' - and wait until the right vehicle comes along for it."
• Stewart wrote about the recording process for this song in his Storyteller anthology. "All I had to do was make the words fit. Easier said than done. We began laying down the track with a guide vocal, and the very first words that come from my mouth were 'Baby Jane.' Cries of 'Eureka!' were heard from all over the studio, hats were tossed into the sky and grown men wept. We knew we had a good one."
• The video was one of many by Stewart that got played a lot in the early years of MTV. Directed by Steve Barron, it shows the mysterious Jane in a few shots, including one where she's with a dog and another where she's playing the saxophone. But most of the time, the camera is on Stewart, one of the original video stars.