The 'Stanhope Road' mentioned in the lyrics are likely referencing a real-life Stanhope Road in the Intake district of Sheffield, where Jarvis Cocker was born and raised.
In 2009 on the Sky Arts show Jarvis Cocker: Songbook, Cocker discussed the song's genesis with Will Hodgkinson, noting that it came from drummer Nick Banks messing up some chords on the guitar, and Cocker overhearing this and running with the sounds these gaffed chords had generated to create the song.
Like a few other singles in the early 1990s for the band, "Babies" was released in several versions - originally as a 12" single for Gift Records in 1992, before a remixed version was put out on the Sisters EP in 1994 and made it onto their breakthrough album His 'N' Hers in the same year.
This tale of voyeurism, with Cocker singing about spying on two sisters, spawned a sequel in the Pulp song "Your Sister's Clothes," which takes place four years later.
