The opening track, "And the Cradle Will Rock...", begins with what sounds like a guitar, but is, in fact, a phase shifter-effected Wurlitzer electric piano played through Van Halen's 1960s model 100-watt Marshall Plexiamplifier. The album is somewhat different from the band's first two albums in the way that it features more studio overdubs and less emphasis on backing vocals. "Could This Be Magic?" contains the only female backing vocal ever recorded for a Van Halen song; Nicolette Larson sings during some of the choruses. The rain sound in the background is not an effect; it was raining outside, and the band decided to record the sound in stereo using two Neumann KM84 microphones, and added it to the track. The first single from the album was the keyboard-driven "And the Cradle Will Rock..." Although it was not a success like previous singles "Dance the Night Away" or the cover of "You Really Got Me," the album itself was well-received and further entrenched the band as a popular concert draw. The song "Everybody Wants Some!!" was also a concert staple through the 1984 tour, and continued to be played by David Lee Roth after he left Van Halen. The album contains a track at the end of "In a Simple Rhyme," a brief instrumental piece entitled "Growth," which begins at 4:19. While "Growth" faded out on the original vinyl LP and cassette, it was given a cold ending at full volume on the compact disc. At the time the band was toying with the idea of starting what would become their next album, Fair Warning, with a continuation of "Growth," but this did not occur. "Growth" was a staple of the band's live shows with Roth and often used as the start of their encores. Several outtakes from these sessions exist, including an unreleased instrumental often referred to as "Act Like It Hurts," which was the title Eddie Van Halen originally wanted for "Tora! Tora!" "Act Like It Hurts" also provided a riff for "House of Pain," released on 1984. The album version included a poster of a photograph by Helmut Newton featuring Roth chained to a fence. "Everybody Wants Some!!" was featured in the 1985 comedy Better Off Dead, during a sequence featuring a singing, guitar-playing claymation hamburger. A nod is given to Eddie in the animation, as the hamburger's guitar sports the Frankenstrat design made famous by him. "Everybody Wants Some!!" is also featured in the 2009 filmZombieland and the 2016 filmEverybody Wants Some!! which took its title from the song, according to director Richard Linklater. In the band's licensed game, , four of the nine tracks of this album are available for play: "And the Cradle Will Rock...," "Everybody Wants Some!!," "Romeo Delight" and "Loss of Control."
Critical reception
Reviews for Women and Children First were generally favorable. David Fricke for Rolling Stone highlights the songs, "Romeo Delight", "Everybody Wants Some!!", and "Loss of Control", calling them "works of high-volume art". Fricke praises the band, calling them "exceptionally good players". Both Fricke and Robert Christgau compare Eddie's guitar work to Jimi Hendrix. Christgau gives the album a B rating, stating, " earns the Hendrix comparisons, and he's no clone--he's faster, colder, more structural." In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album 4.5 stars out of 5. Erlewine calls the album, "mature, or at least get a little serious", noting "there's a bit of a dark heart beating on this record". Kerrang! magazine listed the album at #30 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time", and Rolling Stone listed the album at #36 in their list of "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".
