The daughter of Broadway composer Frank Loesser has defended his song ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ following its axing from an American radio station.
Susan Loesser said her father would be “furious” over claims the lyrics to his popular 1944 Christmas tune portray a man trying to pressure a woman to stay and drink with him when she clearly wants to go home.
The beloved song has become a holiday favourite over the years thanks to dozens of iconic covers by the likes of Dean Martin, Michael Buble, Dolly Parton and plenty more, but in the #MeToo era the lyrics have led some people to reconsider their stance on the tune, with listeners of radio station Cleveland Star 102 in the US voting to ban the much-loved song from its airwaves earlier this month.
One verse in the song goes:
“The neighbours might think (Baby it’s bad out there)
“Say what’s in this drink? (No cabs to be had out there)
“I wish I knew how (Your eyes are like starlight now)
“To break this spell (I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell) (Why thank you)
“I ought to say no, no, no sir (Mind if move in closer?)
“At least I’m gonna say that I tried (What’s the sense of hurtin’ my pride?)
“I really can’t stay (Baby don’t hold out)
“Baby it’s cold outside
“Ah, you’re very pushy you know?
“I like to think of it as opportunistic.”
Speaking to NBC News, 74-year-old Loesser addressed the controversy surrounding her father’s song and accused actor Bill Cosby for “ruining it for everybody”.
Loesser said ever since Cosby was accused, and consequently found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, more people have taken issue with the line in the song “say what’s in this drink?” and have associated it with date rape.
“I think my father would be furious at that,” she told NBC News. People used to say ‘what’s in this drink’ as a joke. You know, this drink is going straight to my head so what’s in this drink? Back then it didn’t mean you drugged me.”
She added: “Flirting was a whole different thing back then”.
However, this isn’t the view of many Cleveland Star 102 listeners who labelled the song as inappropriate in a poll conducted by the radio station in early December.
The station allows listeners to vote for songs on its Christmas playlist each year. But while the station claimed their website poll showed the majority of listeners wanted the song banned, a poll on their Facebook page showed 95 per cent of voters wanted the song played, while only 5 per cent said it was inappropriate.
“I gotta be honest, I didn’t understand why the lyrics were so bad … until I read them,” radio jockey Glenn Anderson wrote on the station’s website.
“Now, I do realize [sic] that when the song was written in 1944, it was a different time, but now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong. The world we live in is extra sensitive now, and people get easily offended, but in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place.”
Read more: Radio station bans Baby It’s Cold Outside amid #MeToo concerns
The song was written in 1944 by Frank Loesser, who penned it as a Christmas duet for him and his wife to sing at their holiday parties. He later sold the tune to movie studio MGM and it was featured in the 1949 romantic comedy Neptune’s Daughter.
At the time, the lyrics were viewed as a playful back-and-forth between man and woman, but in today’s context of the #MeToo movement, it appears it’s taken on a whole new meaning for many people that’s just too hard to stomach.