![]() ![]() (The welcome has been) How lucky that you dropped in (The answer is no) Baby, it's cold outside (I simply must go) Baby, it's cold outside (I really can't stay) Baby, don't hold out (At least I'm gonna say that I tried) What's the sense of hurting my pride (I ought to say no, no, no, sir) Mind if I move in closer (Some crazy spell) I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell (I seem to be in) Your eyes are like starlight now (Say what's in this drink) No cabs to be had out there (The neighbors might think) Baby, it's bad out there (Well, maybe just half a drink more) Put some records on while I pour (So really I'd better scurry) Beautiful, please don't hurry (My father will be pacing the floor) Listen to the fireplace roar (My mother will start to worry) Beautiful, what's your hurry (So very nice) I'll hold your hands they're just like ice (This evening has been) Been hoping that you'd drop in (I've got to go away) But, baby, it's cold outside (I really can't stay) But, baby, it's cold outside Yet there was a time when "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was no more controversial than "Here Comes Santa Claus" or " Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." The song itself hasn't changed in the 73 years of its existence, so what happened?Ĭomposed by Frank Loesser (of Guys and Dolls fame) in 1944 and recorded for the first time in 1948 for the Hollywood musical Neptune's Daughter (for which Loesser won an Oscar for Best Original Song), "Baby, It's Cold Outside" evokes a bygone era when gender politics, when they were brought up at all, were considered little more than a laughing matter.Īs the lyrics unfold, one voice (usually female, labeled "The Mouse" by Loesser on the original lyric sheet) ticks off a list of excuses to flee while the other (usually male, labeled "The Wolf") tries every gambit in the book to get her to stay, presumably for the night: If you don't believe that rape culture has been normalized in our society, take another listen to the lyrics of the holiday classic "Baby, It's Cold Outside". "Drumbeat" might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it isn't hard to find detractors on social media: In particular, the drumbeat against "Baby, It’s Cold Outside" is getting too loud to ignore. In 2017, America woke up to the systemic sexual predation that pervades every corner of society, but some of our Christmas carols are stuck in the past. ![]() "Is this the year we finally retire 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'?" wrote USA Today writer Mary Nahorniak toward the end of 2017, a year brimming with revelations of sexual misbehavior by powerful men: "Baby, It's Cold Outside" occupies a unique spot in the holiday music canon in two respects: one, it's a call-and-response duet in which one party tries to seduce the other over the latter's apparent objections and two, it has gone in a few short decades from being a beloved "fireside couch cuddler" (as one reviewer put it) to being reviled as a so-called "date-rape anthem." At least two of them, besides conjuring up nostalgic scenes of wintriness, are actually love songs: the warm, fuzzy "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" and its naughtier cousin, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Some of the best known examples, in fact, are about the weather ("Winter Wonderland," "Sleigh Ride," and "Jingle Bells" come to mind). ![]() As anyone who has spent the better part of a day listening to Christmas songs while compiling a playlist can attest, not all of them are about Christmas.
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