Radio stations have been banning “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” so I decided to go back to the source, Neptune’s Daughter (1949), where the song was performed by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban–and Betty Garrett and Red Skelton. Yes, TWO couples sing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside in this movie. More on that in an upcoming paragraph.
Prolific song-writer, Frank Loesser, wrote “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in 1944 as a song for him and his wife, Lynn Garland, to perform at parties. According to the Loessers’ daughter, Susan Loesser, the song is flirty. She said the reference to what is in the woman’s drink–interpreted today as a “date rape” drug–signified only that having an alcoholic beverage was cool. The female singer’s repeated insistence that she needed to go is halfhearted, as she too wanted to stay, Ms. Loesser asserted.
In Neptune’s Daughter, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” starts in Ricardo Montalban’s apartment. Esther went to the apartment mistakenly looking for her sister (Betty Garrett). Esther searches the apartment, but her sister isn’t there. Embarrassed, Esther accepts a drink from Montalban and he starts singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” despite the fact that it’s SUMMER! Meanwhile, in another apartment, Betty Garrett as Esther’s aggressive sister, sings the “male” lines to Red Skelton, who she is trying to seduce! Skelton then sings the “female” lines of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” as he tries to escape.
My opinion about “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is that it is NOT a “rape” song. “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” won an Oscar as Best Original Song. It’s been a standard for almost 70 years. Yes, Neptune’s Daughter is a silly movie with too much Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra, but watching Esther Williams frolic in the pool makes it all worth it! What do you think about the “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” controversy? GRADE: C+
Never knew there was a controversy until today. It’s silly. The PC police have been carrying everything a bit too far. NPR banned the use of the word homeless. Life must be hell for stand up comedians.
Steve, there’s a hyper-sensitivity running amok in the United States.
It’s one of the many non-Christmas songs promoted as a Christmas song by radio stations in December. Still, I like the song. It’s cute and innocuous. The so-called controversy seems to be to be one concocted by the radio station which struck the song from its playlist either from a desire for publicity or from a severe case of over-reaction.
If you have to ban a song, why not start with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”? I cringe whenever I hear that one.
I’m a curmudgeon.
Jerry, I totally agree with you. According to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 23% of those radio listeners were “offended” by “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Despite 77% of radio listeners liking “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” the song was banned. In Rick Robinson’s famous response: BAH! I’m a curmudgeon, too!
Here is a rendition you won’t forget — believe me, I’ve tried.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5UIuAa0eM&t=45s
Dan, dozens of singers have covered “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from Dean Martin to Lady Gaga. But Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester take the cake!
We usually hear the Dean Martin version.
Jeff, although some radio stations have banned “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” we still hear the song on Sirius XM Radio when we’re driving around. Most often, they play the Dean Martin version.
that can’t be unheard!!!
I never even remember hearing the line about the drink. I always thought it was obvious she didn’t want to leave.
I remember seeing Neptunes daughter years ago and don’t remember the song. Clearly it was meant to be funny (done in the summer)
Maggie, you’re right. It was funny hearing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with its references to “blizzards” while the movie takes place in the SUMMER!
I can see both sides of the issue. I like the song and think of it as flirty fun, the product of a bygone era. On the other hand (putting on my “mother of three single young women” hat), we do live in a time where women have to be suspicious of what might be in their drinks. Sad, but true. The song could also be read as promoting coercion (“I really can’t…I shouldn’t…I couldn’t” etc., while the man ignores her comments and keeps telling her why she should/could), which again was not seen as an issue in 1949, but is seventy years later. We can’t pretend problematic art doesn’t exist, but we can still enjoy it while acknowledging those problems. The version I’ve been enjoying this Christmas is by Michael Buble and Idina Mendel. There’s also a version by James Taylor and Natalie Cole that’s rather unusual, but I’ve liked.
Deb, I agree that the line “What’s in my drink” has a different interpretation in 2018 than it did in 1944. But watching Betty Garrett and Red Skelton reverse the lyrics gave “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” a completely different vibe.
George, until a decade ago, I used to watch Esther Williams’ films on TCM. Then, one fine day, the channel moved out of India. I still miss TCM.
Prashant, I’m fond of old movies so TCM is one of my favorite TV channels. Why did TCM leave India?
I’m sorry for that, Prashant. TCM is responsible for my VCR being at times stuffed
I think it’s a moronic, made up “controversy” like the Annual Fox News WAR ON CHRISTMAS idiocy. The song doesn’t bother me. If you want to find controversy you can do it anywhere, like the Boycott Starbucks! stupidity.
Mariah’s song (which I know Deb also dislikes) doesn’t bother me as I rarely listen to Christmas music, I only hear it in LOVE ACTUALLY, and there are so many worse, like Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas and Wonderful Christmastime.
Jeff, you’re probably right about the phony “controversy” swirling around “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Christmastime is supposed to be a Time of Hope and Cheer and some people try to ruin it with their negativity.
I must admit that I was never a big fan of Esther Williams movies, though I did enjoy TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME with her, Frank Sinatra, and Gene Kelly.
Jeff, TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME is a lot of fun. Esther Williams shows off her swimming prowess in most of her films.
What Deb said as is so often the case.
Patti, I’m always impressed by Deb’s perspectives on issues.
It occurs to me though that Bill Cosby’s shenanigans began not long after this. So the world was not so different than for unsuspecting girls.
Patti, the amazing part is Cosby’s shenanigans went on so long before his vile deeds were finally exposed. Lock him up! (with Flynn!)
Well, Cosby got away with it for so long because so many wanted to believe there was no attack or abuse in what he did, or if sane enough to realize it was nothing but, chose not to believe he was doing it or covered up for him. And tried to make sure the survivors of his attacks knew who would. be believed.
And, of course, it wasn’t as if mickeys were invented in 2005 or even 1945.
But I’ve always take “Say, what’s in this drink?” to refer to the degree of alcoholic content…
Todd, same here. The “Say, what’s in this drink?” refers to the alcohol in the glass.
Amen to that!
When I became aware of this controversy a few weeks ago all I could remember about the song was that it existed and that I’d heard it sometime in the distant past. So I found it on YouTube and listened. It’s not that I approve or disapprove–I just don’t care. With a Fascist in the White House, don’t we have more important things to worry about? As I recently asked some goober who was all hot and bothered about NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem, “why do you even CARE about this”. Exit soapbox.
Michael, I share your distain for controversies like the banning of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” We have huge problems facing us–Immigration, Global Warming, Health Care, and the failing Education system, etc.–yet we’re caught up in debates about Starbucks Holiday Cups and whether “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is a rape song or not.
It was a Cleveland radio station that started this idiocy. Particularly odd since Frank Loesser’s brother Arthur, resident piano professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music, was for decades the second most prominent (after George Szell) & celebrated musician in the city. No doubt the idiots at the radio station never heard of him; I heard him perform once and will never forget it.
Art, Frank Loesser’s music is wonderful! Here’s just some of the great songs he wrote for the movies (from Wikipedia):
“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from the M-G-M picture Neptune’s Daughter (1949). This was originally a song which Loesser and his wife Lynn performed at parties for the private entertainment of friends. They also recorded the song for Mercury Records. Under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to supply a full score for Neptune’s Daughter, Loesser included this song which he had created in 1944, originally for their housewarming party.
“Heart and Soul” (from the Paramount short subject A Song is Born) – lyrics
“I Don’t Want to Walk Without You” from the Paramount picture Sweater Girl (1942), performed on screen by Betty Jane Rhodes
“Can’t Get Out of This Mood” from the RKO Radio Pictures film Seven Days’ Leave (1942)
“Let’s Get Lost” from Happy Go Lucky (1943) This song inspired the title to the 1988 documentary film with the same title about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker.
“I Wish I Didn’t Love You So” (1947), introduced by Betty Hutton in The Perils of Pauline
“On a Slow Boat to China” (1948)
“Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year” from the Universal picture Christmas Holiday (1944)
“Inch Worm”, “Thumbelina”, “The Ugly Duckling” and “Wonderful Copenhagen” from the Samuel Goldwyn picture Hans Christian Andersen (1952)
“Two Sleepy People” (music by Hoagy Carmichael) from the Paramount picture Thanks for the Memory (1938)
“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (written in 1947)
“We’re The Couple In The Castle” (music by Hoagy Carmichael) from the Paramount picture Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)
Art, got your card. My blog is up, has been for months. Come catch up.
I think the whole thing is bullshit. It’s just a song. Like it or not. Play it or not. Listen or not. Do as you please and let others do the same.
Rick, I wish things worked that way, but democracy is messy. A strident minority can force the majority into some uncomfortable actions…like banning a song.
More snowflake horseshit! So-called date rape drugs weren’t even invented when this song was written! And why do people keep putting commas before, and sometimes after, people’s names when it’s unnecessary and incorrect?!
Bob, it seems like few schools teach basic editing and grammar any more.
I turned against the song a couple years ago. It is, actually, a wonderfully-constructed song, and was perfectly okay when it was written. But that was a time when men believed “no means maybe and maybe means yes.” Young women would say “no” while hoping the guy would know what she really meant — at least in movies; I have no idea how common that was in real life.
But in real life today, no means no. Once she says, “no, I have to go,” it’s over. A modern movie that shows this is the wonderful “The Big Sick,” where after the couple has sex once and are talking, then she gets mad at him and gets up to go home. He tries to talk her into staying, but she repeats that she’s leaving, and that’s the end of it. (Except for the gag that he offers to take her home, she says no, she’ll call for an Uber, and when she does his phone rings because he’s the closest Uber driver available.)
So, yeah, you can listen to the song because it’s fun and it’s 70 years old and all, but you also have to recognize that by today’s standards, when she says no and he works to keep her there instead, it turns into date rape.
Women and men, both, need to acknowledge that this song is outdated. That doesn’t mean you can’t listen to it (hey, I still reread, and love, the Tarzan novels, and they’re outdated too), it just means be aware that circumstances have changed.
Jeff, well said. Songs (and books) have to be considered in their historical context.
That’s not what he said! He said it’s not correct by today’s standards and should be judged thusly, while acknowledging it was okay 70 years ago!
Bob, you missed your calling…you should have been a lawyer!
December’s Underappreciated Music</b