The song didn’t originate there. It was around for years before the movie. Frank Loesser wrote it so his then-wife, who was a barely competent singer, could have something to sing with him at parties that wasn’t too vocally demanding for her. It was a gift from him to her. I recall reading somewhere that while the song had been recorded before Neptune’s Daughter, it really ticked her off when he sold the rights to the song for the film.
ETA; I got a detail wrong. He wrote it for his wife around 1944, he sold it in 1948-ish, so it hadn’t been around for “years”. Nor (as far as I can tell) was it recorded other than a recording that pre-compact discs was rare, of Losser and his wife performing it*. So…oops. It pretty much was unveiled to the public in Neptune’s Daughter. My bad. 
As an aside, looking at the lyrics, the two parts are written as “Wolf” and “Mouse” not “Man” and “Woman” or “Guy” and “Doll”. Somehow, that makes the song more charming to me.
That qualifies as “years” in my book!
Funny that he wrote it to be not too vocally challenging, and to my way of thinking that style is the way the song *should *sound…but all these diva singers just can’t stand to rein themselves in that much, so they punch it up into some big number to where it loses its conversational rhythm.
I agree, and in the “rare” version I linked to with his wife, you can see her expression in her voice when she does the “Say, what’s in this drink?” line. She’s clearly looking at him with a half-smile. She’s not concerned that she’s been roofied, she thinks he used too much (or the wrong type of) booze and the ‘recipe’ is off. It’s obviously banter, not worried.
There is one point that I feel naggingly compelled to make in fairness, even though it runs a bit counter to the argument I made in my OP. It’s that deal about “what’s in this drink?” being a common joke in that era, implying that the drink wasn’t even very strong. It’s *very *thinly sourced. The Vox article states it as outright fact, as does Wikipedia; however, their citations are both to the same anonymous blog post, which states it *without *any kind of citation.
I find it kind of weird that Wikipedia forbids original research, yet allows this kind of citation. I guess I know what to do if I want to insert my own experience into a Wikipedia article: just create a WordPress account, blog about whatever it is, and then cite that in my Wiki edit.
This is not to say that I consider the blogger’s claim false. It seems entirely plausible. But when I’ve read blogs or message board discussions that run down the origin, etymology, or changing meanings of words or phrases, they tend to provide sources (and these kinds of word sleuths try to out-compete each other with the earliest printed citation). This seems so slipshod by comparison.
I think everyone is overthinking this line. She’s presenting it as yet another excuse she can use if she decides to stay. It’s implying that the drink rather than herself is the reason she just had to stay with him that night. She’s doing what he’s been doing by giving herself a reason to stay.
Just last week I heard a Jimmy Buffet version with Nadirah Shakoor where the roles are reversed. It put a smile on my face.
I’ve read hundreds of classic mysteries from the 30s and 40s, and everybody drinks all the time in them. Men and women. Wives drink the same thing as their husbands (if not, that’s a sign of a no-good marriage). In these books are countless references to drinks being extraordinarily, oddly, mysteriously, gaspingly, eye-poppingly potent. Those are always throwaway lines for humor and I can’t give you an example (I’ll bet there’s one in the Jake Justus mysteries by Craig Rice because any of her (yes, her) books has more drinking than all the Thin Man movies combined.)
Remember, this was after Prohibition, so nobody drank bathtub gin. Legal liquors all were about the same proof. The only way a drink could be more potent was to make it a double. Nobody ever refers to one of these extra-potent libations as extra-large, though. If they want a double, they have no problem ordering a double … or a triple. Or a whole evening’s worth of drinks in multiple bars and homes. They drank a lot. They’re always running out of liquor and everybody always starts with an ample supply of bottles.
So I don’t find a comment about “what’s in this drink?” to be anything more than cliched banter. A good host made drinks strong without the specific intention of getting his guests too plastered to resist sex. A good guest noticed that the drinks weren’t thin and miserly. Everybody remembered Greta Garbo’s first lines in a talkie: “Give me a whisky. Ginger ale on the side. And don’t be stingy, baby.”
Yeah, as I say I find it plausible. It’s just kind of hinky for these articles to use actual footnotes (giving it the appearance of being strongly sourced) which then just lead to this anonymous blog post with no citations.
Can’t link on my tablet, but my new favorite version is by Pearl Bailey and Hot Lips Paige. Look for it on Youtube; you won’t be disappointed.
That’s a good one! There’s some apparent improv later in the song that I’m not so sure about (but then, I rarely enjoy any kind of improvisation unless it’s a jazz or jam-band instrumental).
I found a newer version this year that comes pretty close to my head canon! Check it out:
I can’t hear that song anymore without thinking of Gilbert Gottfried doing his Tony Curtis imitation and Mario Cantone doing his post stroke Betty Davis on Gilbert’s podcast last year. OMG it made me laugh harder than I thought possible. Every time he’s on, Cantone fires on all cylinders on Gilbert’s show.
Like this one?
And she did it again much more recently with Michael Bublé:
I love the song. It’s clear to me that A) the woman wants to stay, and B) she also wants the man to beg.
My favourite version (thanks largely to Chris Colfer’s interpretation and smooth voice) is from Glee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gONSsidPtsE
You’re all wrong. The gold standard is Blossom Dearie and Bob Dorough.
I really like Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews.
Bumped.
The perfect greeting card for the season: https://www.raygunsite.com/collections/top-collection/products/cold-outside-greeting-card