Baby, It's Cold Outside

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For other works with this title, see Baby, It's Cold Outside (disambiguation).

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a pop standard with words and music by Frank Loesser. In the United States, it is mostly performed during the month of December and is often played alongside Christmas carols, although the song does not refer to Christmas. Furthermore, the song gets considerable air time in the typically cold months of January and February in the northern hemisphere and likewise during winter in the southern hemisphere.

Contents

[edit] Background

Loesser wrote the duet in 1944 and premiered the song with his wife at their Navarro Hotel housewarming party.[1]

[edit] The lyrics

The female voice in the song is called "The Mouse" and the male "The Wolf."[1] The lyrics consist of his attempts to convince her to stay with him at the end of a date; her indecisive protests reveal that although she feels obligated to go home, she is tempted to stay, partially because, as the title suggests, "it's cold outside."

[edit] The tempo

In at least one published version the tempo of the song is given as "fantana," a humorous reference to the composer's name.

[edit] Neptune's Daughter

In 1948, after years of informally performing the song at various parties, Loesser sold its rights to MGM, which inserted the song into its 1949 motion picture, Neptune's Daughter.[1] The film featured two performances of the song: one by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams and the other by Red Skelton and Betty Garrett. These performances earned Loesser an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

[edit] 1949 recordings

The following versions were recorded in 1949:

[edit] Other recordings

 This article may contain excessive, poor or irrelevant examples. You can improve the article by adding more descriptive text. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions. (October 2009)

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" has been recorded by numerous other artists over the years, including

The 1961 Ray Charles/Betty Carter version is also the only version that has charted on The Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (1958 to present); it peaked at # 91 in March 1962. Lady Antebellum's version, however, reached #3 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100, which is equivalent to #103 on the Hot 100. A 2007 version, recorded by Martina McBride as an overdubbed duet with Dean Martin, was a #36 on Hot Country Songs. A 2010 version, recorded by Willie Nelson and Norah Jones, was a #55 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Due to the wintertime lyrics, the song is often played during the Christmas season.

On Saturday Night Live NBC on October 11, 1986, the song was featured as a duet sung by Sigourney Weaver and Buster Poindexter. In the "Drew Dates a Senior" episode of The Drew Carey Show, the characters played by Drew Carey and Shirley Jones flirtatiously sing the song with one another while experiencing a low-key version of the situation described in the song. The song has been performed by Suzy Bogguss and Delbert McClinton and the song is featured on Suzy's album "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (2003). It was also featured in the 1991 movie For the Boys sung by Bette Midler and James Caan. In the 2003 Christmas film Elf, the song is sung during the film by Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell (Caan is also in Elf). A complete version sung by Deschanel and Leon Redbone plays over the film's end credits. In 2006, the song was reissued on the album Christmas with Dino, this time as a duet by Dean Martin (posthumously) with Martina McBride, whose portion was recorded and mixed at the Los Angeles Capitol studio used by Martin for his 1959 version. Also in 2006, Peter Gallagher and Megan Mullally performed it on The Megan Mullally Show. One of the oddest and most amusing renditions was by husband-and-wife Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester on an American radio show. In his Christmas in New England special, Rod McKuen sings the song with Dusty Springfield, in an instance where the roles of the male and female are reversed in the second verse. A similar performance with McKuen and Petula Clark appears on Clark's "Duets" album. Rudolf Nureyev also performed the song with Miss Piggy on the Muppet Show. In this rendition Nureyev was in a sauna with only a towel and Miss Piggy was trying to seduce him. Seth Macfarlane and Alex Borstein sang a variation of the song at 'Family Guy Sings' at Carnegie Hall as Glenn Quagmire and Lois Griffin respectively, although the song lyrics were altered to fit the character's personalities.

[edit] Reference in the writings of Sayyid Qutb

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is mentioned in a key passage from The America I Have Seen, a 1951 book by the influential Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb. He described the scene as a record of the song was played at a church dance in the town of Greeley, Colorado: "The dance hall convulsed to the tunes on the gramophone and was full of bounding feet and seductive legs ... Arms circled waists, lips met lips, chests met chests, and the atmosphere was full of passion."

Snippets of the song are played multiple times in The Power of Nightmares, a BBC documentary on the origins of Islamism, Neocons and the ongoing War on Terrorism.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Loesser, Susan (1993). A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life; A Portrait by His Daughter" p. 79-81. ISBN 1-55611-364-1.
  2. ^ a b c d Whitburn, Joel (1973). Top Pop Records 1940-1955. Record Research. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
"Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface		 Academy Award for Best Original Song
1949		 Succeeded by
"Mona Lisa" from Captain Carey, U.S.A.
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