Baby It's Cold Outside Faces Ban

A favorite Christmas holiday song is facing the ban. 

Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are some of the performers who have sung Baby It's Cold Outside. Photo: Filepic 

"Baby It's Cold Outside" is a 1944 song written by Frank Loesser – it’s a call-and-response duet in which a host, usually performed by a male voice, tries to convince a guest, usually performed by a female voice, that she should stay the evening because the weather is cold and the trip home would be difficult. 

While the lyrics make no mention of any holiday – it is popularly regarded as a Christmas song due to its winter theme. 

Loesser wrote the song for his wife and himself to perform at parties. He sold the song to MGM, which used it for the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter. 

It was sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán and won the Academy Award. 

Since 1949 it has been covered by many singers, including Dean Martin & Martina McBride, Bing Crosby & Doris Day, Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews, Ray Charles & Betty Carter, Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart, Brett Eldredge & Meghan Trainor, and Idina Menzel & Michael Bublé. 

Needless to say, my favorite version is the Lady Gaga-Joseph Gordon-Levitt duet:

Lyrics, such as: "I simply must go (But baby it's cold outside), The answer is no (But baby it's cold outside)", are now labelled as predatory, and within the context of the #MeToo movement, under heightened scrutiny. 

The song has even been deemed a "date rape anthem" as it is essentially about a man not understanding the concept of 'no' and trying to persuade a woman to stay with him even though she keeps protesting. 

Please excuse me while I sigh and aggressively roll my eyes. 

Anyway, this radio station in Cleveland, Ohio in the US of A, WDOK-FM – branded as Star 102 – have removed the song from their playlist. 

WDOK’s Glenn Anderson acknowledged that the song was from a different era and written during a different time – but he maintained the lyrics are clearly 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", he explained. 

There is bound to be people who say this is political correctness gone too far. 

And there is bound to be people who are upset over just about anything and everything. 

Still, I'm sure WDOK listeners will survive without listening to this one song!