It’s the perfect time to consider
another of those pop songs that
really have nothing to do with Christmas
but have become staples of holiday
play lists. Among the most enduring
of these winter songs is the playful
duet Baby
it’s Cold Outside. But lately
the perineal favorite has been
caught up in controversy.
The song had its origin in 1944 when
Frank Loesser, a Hollywood lyricist turned composer wrote it as a novelty to sing at cocktail parties with his wife
Lynn Garland. At
the time Loesser was in the Army
Airforce based in California where
he penned songs for war effort
broadcasts and moral boosting
films including Praise the Lord and Pass the
Ammunition, What Do You Do in the
Infantry, and others. Some of the
songs also made it to Hollywood films like They’re Either Too Young or Too Old
for the 1943 film Thank Your Lucky Stars.
Baby
it’s Cold Outside proved so popular among their
friends that Lynn Garland objected to offers to buy “our song.” But after the success of Loesser’s first Broadway musical, Where’s
Charley starring Ray Bolger in
1948, the offers became too lucrative
to turn down. He sold the song to MGM which featured it in the 1949 film Neptune’s Daughter in which it was
performed by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams and in a role reversal version by Red Skelton and Betty Garrett. It
was the highlight of the film and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song.
That year in addition to versions by
Montalbán and Williams and by Loesser and his wife—billed as Mrs. Frank
Loesser—almost a dozen covers were
released including four that climbed into the upper reaches of the pop charts and stayed there for weeks—Don Cornell and Laura Leslie with the Sammy
Kaye Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan, Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark, and Johnny Mercer and Margaret Whiting.
Since then, the song has been
covered or included in TV shows countless
times featuring a wide variety of duet
partners. Among the most noted
versions were by Dean Martin with a female chorus and later with various
partners on his TV series and specials, Steve
Lawrence and Eydie Gorme,
Brian Setzer and Ann-Margret,
Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone, Willie Nelson and Norah Jones, Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
and Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
The song was always considered a bit
coyly risqué but good hearted fun.
But in the #MeToo era it has drawn criticism that it is essentially a date rape song and a classic example of
a man refusing to accept a woman’s no. The
main point of contention is the woman’s line, “say what’s in this
drink?” and protests that she has to go home. In response WDOK in Cleveland
announced in 2019 that it was removing all versions of the song from its
holiday playlist. Some other US stations followed and in Canada it was banned by Bell Media, CBC Radio, and Rogers Media which together represent the bulk of Canadian
stations.
The bans stirred a voracious backlash. Right
wingers, of course, paint them as an example of the infamous but non-existent
War on Christmas despite the fact
the song has nothing to do with Christmas.
Other fans of the song are simply vexed
that it has fallen victim to political
correctness, whatever that is.
Susan
Loesser, the daughter of the composer, has
leapt to the defense of her parents and the song insisting that it was never a
date rape song. She said the controversy
actually began when Comedian Bill Cosby was
accused of drugging and raping
scores of women over decades. Both Saturday
Night Live and South Park featured skits with Cosby
crooning the song to a victim.
But Susan pointed out that in 1944
“People used to say ‘what’s in this drink, as a joke. You know, ‘this drink is
going straight to my head so what’s in this drink?’ Back then it didn’t mean
‘you drugged me.’” Others noted that
despite the woman’s initial demurrals
in the end she wants to stay.
Dean Martin’s now 72-year-old
daughter Deana Martin also defended
the song and insisted that she would continue to perform it in her own act.
John Legend, as hot a male
singer/songwriter as there is and an outspoken progressive, stirred the pot by penning updated lyrics that
answer the objection. In a duet with
another mega-star, Kelly Clarkson, they were all over the
airways in December 2020 from The Voice, Clarkson’s daytime talk show,
late night gab fests, to
multiple holiday specials. Legend’s version made multiple changes. Clarkson’s lines are in standard type, Legend’s in italics,
and both in bold.
I really
can’t stay (Baby, it’s cold outside)
I’ve got to
go away (But, I can call you a ride)
This evening
has been (I’m so glad you that you dropped in)
So very nice
(Time spent with you is paradise)
My mom will
start to worry (I’ll call the car and tell him to hurry)
My daddy
will be pacing the floor (Wait, what are you still livin’ home for?)
So, really,
I’d better scurry (Your driver, his name is Murray)
But maybe
just a half a drink more (Oh, we’re both adults, so who’s keepin’ score?)
What will my
friends think? (Well I think they should rejoice)
If I have
one more drink? (It’s your body and your choice)
Ooh you
really know how (Your eyes are like starlight now)
To cast a
spell (One look at you and then I fell)
I ought to
say, “No, no, no, sir” (Then you really ought to go, go, go)
At least I’m
gonna say that I tried (Well, Murray, he just pulled up outside)
Chorus:
Kelly Clarkson, John Legend & Both
I really
can’t stay
I
understand, baby
Baby, it’s cold outside
I simply
should go (Text me when you get home)
On I’m
supposed to say no (Mm, I guess that’s respectable)
This welcome
has been (I’ve been lucky that you dropped in)
So nice and
warm (But you better go before it storms)
My sister
will be suspicious (Well, gosh your lips look delicious)
My brother
will be there at the door (Oh, he loves my music, baby, I’m sure)
My gossipy
neighbors for sure (I’m a genie, tell me what your wish is)
But maybe
just a cigarette more (Oh, that’s somethin’ we should probably explore)
I’ve got to
get home (Oh, baby, I’m well aware)
Say, lend me
a coat (Oh, keep it girl, I don’t care)
You’ve
really been grand (I feel it when you touch my hands)
But don’t
you see? (I want you to stay, it’s not up to me)
There’s
bound to be talk tomorrow (Well, they can talk, but what do they know?)
At least
there will be plenty implied (Oh, let them mind their business, and go)
[The driver]
Ma’am, I really can’t stay.
Chorus:
Baby, just
go
It’s cold, baby
It’s cold, baby
But, ooh, I
don’t wanna go
It’s cold outside
Activists applauded the new version, but Legend was slammed by both
the usual right-wing suspects and several musicians and performers who defended
Loesser’s original song. Legend defended
himself in several interviews. “The
song was supposed to be silly. It wasn’t
supposed to be preachy at all. I never disparaged the old version.” And:
People thinking we’ve gone too far speaking up for a woman’s
right to not get raped or sexually harassed, when some would argue we’ve not
gone far enough, when we have an admitted sexual assailant in the highest
office in the land. People think that because some people have lost their jobs,
or have been expelled from Hollywood, like [Harvey] Weinstein, that we’ve gone
too far. I don’t agree. But people wanted the Baby It’s Cold Outside war to be a proxy war for all that.
I understand the objections to the
song and am loathe to dismiss them out of hand.
I am also totally cool with Legend’s update. But I also believe that songs can be sung and
considered for the times in which they were composed. A hell of a lot of music from classic opera to county & western cry-in-your-beer
juke box favorites, to blues
and rap would have to be sacrificed
along with this novelty song. And I am
just not a fan of censorship in
general.
But you be the judge.
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My personal favorite version of the
song was the one by Johnny Mercer and Margaret Whiting. Mercer was a prolific song writer and a
popular singer who founded and ran Capitol
Records in Los Angeles. Twenty-four year old Whiting was a Mercer protégé and one of the first artists he
signed to his new label.
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