Wow, thanks for that!!
Ray Charles and Betty Carter. Can’t be touched.
How is his name pronounced? Is it said like “rain” as in “rain drops keep falling on my head” or like “Ryan”?
Yep, mine too. But I’ve got it bad for Sir Tom.
Were Miss Piggy and Rudolph Nureyev the only ones to switch the gender roles?
I thought that was an inspired choice- also inspired, I thought, was the choice to set the performance in a steam room.
I didn’t grow up with them and I think this is the best version. The connection they have, being married and clearly very comfortable with each other, is absolutely astounding. The chemistry between the two of them is both touching and hilarious and several of their duets.
In Neptune’s Daughter, there’s a reprise of the song with Red Skelton and Betty Garrett singing with the gender roles reversed. I normally find Red Skelton annoying, but this version amuses me. I find it hard to believe anybody would make that much effort to keep Red with them!
And I share Miss Piggy’s opinion that he was overdressed.
The version with Selma Blair and Rainn Wilson mentioned upthread (which is an abridged version from a TV commercial, unfortunately – I’d love to hear them do the whole song) also reverses the gender roles. It’s a fun commercial to watch.
Liza Minelli and Alan Cummings is a hoot, totally tongue-in-cheek. Dianne Reeves and Lou Rawls made it all velvety. But Rod Stewart and Dolly Parton, they’re just over the top.
Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. The original odd couple.
Dean Martin doe the best, imho. The original version, not the new overdubbed one.
I love that version. There’s also one with John Lithgow and Bebe Neuwirth that is smoking. It always amazes me that Lithgow can sing at all, never mind so good.
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” is not in any way, shape, or form a Christmas song.
It’s a song about Miss Piggy trying to seduce Rudolph Nureyev in a steam room.
That is all.
THat’s four for this version. Video was kinda cool also.
Also, Brian Setzer has a version on his Christmas album that’s pretty good, but he does tend to ham it up a bit. Don’t knwo who the woman is in that version.
KBCO, the FM radio station (that used to be cool until it was taken over by Clear Channel and I haven’t willingly listened to it in five or six years)* broadcasting from Boulder, Colorado, released a Christmas CD a couple of years ago that has a very nice version of Baby It’s Cold Outside with Suzy Boggus and Delbert McClinton (both of whom are criminally underappreciated artists)* – I like it a lot.
I also like Selma Blair a lot, and appreciate **Hazle’s **posting of that version. Wow.
*Editorial interjections – all apologies. Happy holidays, everyone! Gosh, Selma Blair’s really pretty.
36 posts in, and no love for the Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Jordan version? In my mind, that’s always been the definitive version. Ella Fitzgerald is, as always, shining, and Jordan’s delivery seems like just the right mix of desperation and smoothness, always responding to her arguments, without stepping on the female vocal, as so many versions do.
While you may not care for that, the overlapping of the vocal lines is how the song is written. I find it brings something to the song. Versions where the overlap is avoided strike me as feeling squeezed and rushed.
I’m most familiar with this song from Neptune’s Daughter, and I always liked the duplicate versions with the gender reversal (and I’m a Red Skelton fan anyway. I know I’ve heard one or two other versions over the years, including the Miss Piggy/Nureyev one, but I don’t think I’d ever heard either of these:
Until today, that is. I decided I wanted to listen to Christmas music today, so this afternoon I tuned my DirecTV to its XM Country Christmas channel, and heard the Bogguss/McClinton version (I had to hit the info button to see who it was, because I knew the female singer was familiar but couldn’t place the voice). Then a few hours ago I switched to the XM Holiday Channel and the third song I heard was the Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Jordan version.
I prefer Marcel Marceau’s version myself.