Baby It's Cold Outside

BEHIND THE SONG: Baby It's Cold Outside

One of the classic Tin Pan Alley duets, this has become a holiday favorite, but it was originally a party song by Frank Loesser (composer of Guys and Dolls and many other musicals) that he and his wife (who co-produced The Most Happy Fella which Loesser wrote as well as other shows) wrote to sing. In 1949 it was put in the Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbahn movie Neptune's Daughter and won an Academy Award.

Frank Loesser wrote this tune with his former nightclub singer wife Lynn for a housewarming party they were throwing after moving into the Hotel Navarro in New York. Their rendition proved very successful and the couple continued to perform the song at parties they attended in New York and Hollywood. Their son John Loesser recalled to The Palm Beach Post December 7, 2010: "It was something that songwriters did in those days. If you were invited to a party, you were expected to sing for your supper. Oscar Levant, Roger Edens, Harry Warren – they all did it. But the song was a private social piece for parties. My mother just loved both the song and the fact that it was hers. And it kept them in champagne and caviar."

Eventually, MGM offered Frank Loesser good money for the song, and used it in Neptune's Daughter. However his wife was not impressed. "He went home and told my mother and she was furious," John recalled to The Palm Beach Post. "You sold our song for Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban!," she complained to her husband. "I felt as betrayed as if I'd caught him in bed with another woman," she complained to their children.

For a long time afterwards, Lynn would simply sigh, "Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban!"

Many singers have performed this over the years, usually as duets. Bette Midler sang it with James Caan in For The Boys and it was a Hit Parade #1 for Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer.

In 1999 Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews covered this reaching #17 in the UK singles chart. Cerys Matthews was the lead singer of the Welsh band Catatonia, who had several hits in the late 1990s including "Mulder And Scully" and "Road Rage." Either Matthews had a deep admiration for her fellow Welsh vocalist, or there was some clever marketing going on. Her previous single release before this duet had been a recording with the Liverpool band Space, the Top 10 hit "The Ballad of Tom Jones."

This song appears twice in the 2003 movie Elf. First, Zooey Deschanel sings it with Will Ferrell, then a version by Deschanel and Leon Redbone plays during the closing credits Redbone was also the voice of Leon the Snowman). The Deschanel/Redbone version renewed interest in the song and got a lot of airplay on Christmas playlists. A few years later, Deschanel got her sing on again when she joined M. Ward in the duo She & Him.

A version by The Glee Cast debuted at #57 on the Hot 100 dated December 25, 2010. The only previous time this song had reached the US singles chart was in 1962 when Ray Charles and Betty Carter's version reached #91.