In defense of "Baby It's Cold Outside."

[jayjay]

@DrDeth

Dean Martin.

Heh. I hate the Dean Martin version. Mostly because the man took a song that’s supposed to be a duet and made it a solo with backup singers. Only Dino…

ETA: Unless you’re talking about the Plundered Grave version where Martina McBride overdubbed the Golddigger parts on that track with her own voice long after Dino went to his pickled end.

[jayjay]

AND in looking up the date for the Martina McBride necromancy version, I discovered that the song was written by Frank Loesser (Guys & Dolls, How To Succeed In Business…, etc.) I never knew that, but the lyrics really do have a Loesserish feel to them.

[Hopeful_Crow]

Baby It’s Cold Outside is one of the only three Christmastime songs I really like, the other two being “Santa Baby” (the Lena Horne version) and “Stop the Calvary” (the Cory Band version.) The only line I don’t really like is when he says, “What’s the sense in hurting my pride?” That seems a dickish way of saying that his ego is more important than her needs, so submit already. But overall, I like the verbal give-and-take of the song.

[psychobunny]

“Santa Baby” (the Lena Horne version)

Lena Horne did a version of Santa Baby??!!!???

The only one *EVER *allowed to sing that is Eartha Kitt-I’m talking to you Madonna!

[Morgenstern]

Never seen so many 99’ers in one thread before. It must be cold outside.

[DinoR]

Can’t say I’d even heard it in years for a starter. This is the first time I ever heard of anyone uncomfortable with the lyrics.

[jayjay]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

Yeah – that’s the version I was trying to remember before, where both singers are very flirty. I think it’s my favorite straightforward rendition of the song.

Heh…you know that’s an overdub, right? McBride took Dino’s version with the female chorus and recorded her own parts over those. The two were never even in the studio together…I think Dino was actually dead before she recorded that.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Megadeth with Jenny Lewis is my favorite version.

[from_a_to_z]

@amarinth

The song was in the movie “Neptune’s Daughter” and won the Oscar for best song. Here’s that version. It’s a good song. It could be done as very menacing, but usually both sides are obviously flirting.

I cannot defend it as a winter/holiday song. It’s not really all that cold outside (in the movie, it was summer in Florida. It wasn’t even remotely cold). The “cold” is just as flimsy a reason as “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious”

@Labrador_Deceiver

It wasn’t written for the movie. It was written as a winter/holiday song, and originally performed as such.

Interesting, and Frank Loesser’s daughter Susan claims that he wrote it in 1944, performed it with his wife for 4 years, then sold it in 1948 to MGM for “Neptune’s Daughter”. However, in 1942 Jerome Kern complained that his 1940 song “The Last Time I Saw Paris” shouldn’t have won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1942 “because it had been published and recorded before it was used in the film.” So the AMPAS changed the requirement (207k PDF, pp. 19-20). Nowadays,

Original Song:
An original song consists of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the motion picture. There must be a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition (not necessarily visually presented) of both lyric and melody, used in the body of the motion picture or as the first music cue in the end credits.

How many years did the AMPAS wait before changing its requirement? Or did it know that Loesser didn’t write his song for the movie? (After all that, I’m only mildly curious about it.)

[Enright3]

@RandMcnally

The one thing that makes me mad about the song is I can not find my perfect version of it. There’s always something off. I like the Nick Lachey one but Jessica Simpson throws it off.

The closest one I’ve like is, oddly enough, Will Ferrell and Zoey Deschanel in Elf. Shame it’s so short.

Have you heard the Willie Nelson/Nora Jones version? I recently heard it for the first time and really like it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_-XMZjWGF4

[Just_Asking_Questions]

@panache45

I’ve witnesses that song performed by a man and a woman, two men, and two women. it’s only the man/woman version that people find creepy. That says more about them than the song.

What about those of us who hate it in any version, including instrumental, if such a thing existed? What does that say about us?

And Santa Baby sucks in ANY version as well.

[BrotherCadfael]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

And then there’s the Fallon version.

That’s hillarious!

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@panache45

I’ve witnesses that song performed by a man and a woman, two men, and two women. it’s only the man/woman version that people find creepy. That says more about them than the song.

It says maybe they’re aware that men date-rape women far more than women date-rape men, or men date-rape men, and so when a woman is singing suspiciously about a man giving her a super-strong drink, it’s a bit creepier than the reverse. What does it say about you that you’re not aware of that gender difference?

@kunilou

I don’t find the song objectionable any more than I find Singin’ In The Rain objectionable because Alex sang it in A Clockwork Orange.

That’s not a good analogy, though. The song’s lyrics, taken straight, have some creepy undertones. It’s the archness of the female vocalist that can save these lyrics from creepiness, IMO: if she’s playing, there’s no problem.

@jayjay

Heh…you know that’s an overdub, right? McBride took Dino’s version with the female chorus and recorded her own parts over those. The two were never even in the studio together…I think Dino was actually dead before she recorded that.

I did not know that! Anyway I think that’s the version I like: we’ve got a hoary old “Christmas with the Rat Pack” CD around someplace, and that version is the one I was thinking of; when someone mentioned Dean, I just linked to the first video I could find. Interesting about the dub!

[BigT]

I don’t think it’s rapey without the girl being in on it. It just feels very one-sided and underhanded. I much prefer the subtext of Let It Snow.

I also like that Let It Snow is cheery like a Christmas song, and doesn’t use a seductive tone. THat’s why I don’t like “Santa, Baby” all that much. (Well, that and the girl always does that creepy fake cute voice.)

[Labrador_Deceiver]

You’ve never heard the original and definitive version of Santa Baby? Eartha Kitt does not use a fake cutesy voice. It’s very sultry.

[jayjay]

Yeah, I think the Betty Boop voice was Madonna’s invention for that song. And it sucks. Eartha Kitt, however, can do no wrong.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

Agreed, all around. I appreciate that Madonna tried to put her own spin on the song, but it just didn’t work nearly as well as the original. I still give her props for trying.

[jayjay]

I really hate “outer-space convertible”, as well. Change the year if you have to, but that phrase is just stupid.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@jayjay

I really hate “outer-space convertible”, as well. Change the year if you have to, but that phrase is just stupid.

I don’t know if I ever even caught that change. That’s pretty terrible.

[DrDeth]

@Labrador_Deceiver

You’ve never heard the original and definitive version of Santa Baby? Eartha Kitt does not use a fake cutesy voice. It’s very sultry.

I am not a fan of the song myself, but Eartha Kitt does it right.