2016
I was just about to come back and note that correction! How the time flies.
Just now was the first time I had read the OP this year. One thing I enjoyed about it in its original iteration was that we generally focused more on my complaint that no one performs the song correctly (or more specifically, that there are a couple women who do it right and one man—Seth McFarlane—who nails it, but never both in the same version).
I’ve always found talky songs difficult to pull off.
It’s different from singing. You have to talk, but still stay on pitch. Staying in rhythm is tricky.
I’ve seen Baby It’s Cold done at various holiday parties. It’s not quite the same as the record.
I remember an old gf wanted me to sing it with her. We quickly picked another song for the party.
How would you say it comes across at parties? I have never seen this, but I know that is how it started.
Party versions are hard to describe. I remember more regular speech instead of the sing/talk you hear Dean Martin use. Depends on how much everyone’s had to drink. 
Dean’s version is my favorite. The woman’s part sounds like a blend of several singers. This is the version I keep in my Christmas playlist.
They still need listeners. And donations.
No, they don’t. They are government funded. The television side has ads, which requires viewers, but the the radio side is ad free and doesn’t get donations. It’s not like NPR.
Doesn’t Dean’s version seem less awkward than the original? It seems more playful and silly.
I rarely hear the original version and I’ve never seen the movie. I watched the YouTube video. It’s certainly very dated by today’s values.
That’s true of a lot of the old movies. Relationships were depicted from a masculine view that seem so odd compared to today. It’s a reminder of how much society has changed.
Not a fan of Dean-o’s version. As I said (somewhat ungrammatically) in the OP, it’s too “uptempo and unvarying a swing, and having the female part be a chorus makes no sense.”
I would say few people alive have heard the original version, as it was a sort of party trick the songwriter and his wife would perform at parties. I suspect it was better than the versions I’m complaining about, but who knows.
The original in the movie can look bad, because it’s a little physical. In my impression, they are basically doing a dance but it can definitely be interpreted as way too pushy. It’s funny because with all the people hoping for a gender flip, that happens in the original movie with similar physicality.
(both versions from Neptune’s Daughter)
BICO outside has a special quality. It’s a performance song. The woman isn’t talking to the man: she’s talking to the audience, goosing them about society’s ridiculous morals and sanctions. The man is there only to balance the performance. The song could be done by a woman talking to an offstage man whose lines are never heard and it would still work. The audience would get the point just as well.
In a similar vein, a story about a high school student play featuring KKK costumes blew up here. While lots of students may well be shocked (I would be) there was only one parent who complained.
In any event, the KKK members in The Foreigner were ridiculed.
Who would have thought a song knocked out to encourage people to go home because the party was over had such deep nuance and actually meant the exact opposite?
Radio statton plays 2 hour Baby It’s Cold Outside marathon
Pooh on the ones who ban it.
Well, I’m glad they didn’t play it *too *much.
Even though I started the thread to defend the song, hearing it covered by various people for hours on end sounds like effective psychological warfare. 
Could be worse, could be* Santa Baby* for hours…:eek:
I think the best defense is it’s a 74 year old song, written by and for people that don’t think like we do in a lot of ways. So are a lot of books. Shall we have a nice book burning next?
Has Peta tried to ban Pepe Le Pew reruns, for him sexually assaulting cats in a children’s show yet? Surely that must be offensive to somebody.
Cite for anyone advocating erasing the song from history?
It’s not about erasing, it’s about censorship.