‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ Is Not A Christmas Song And Should Be Banned

screencap from video of Baby It's Cold Outside
Adding a Christmas tree still doesn’t make it a Christmas song

‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’, written by Frank Loesser in 1944, is suppose to be a Christmas song with lyrics one couldn’t really make into a song today unless it was a rap song. People lost their minds, as social media outrage can happen, when a few radio stations removed the song from their Christmas play lists. The song isn’t even a Christmas song so the questionable lyrics is just another reason to remove it from the radio during the holiday season.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is an Academy Award-winning popular song written by Frank Loesser in 1944, which gained wide recognition in 1949 when it was performed in the film Neptune’s Daughter.

While the lyrics make no mention of any holiday, it is popularly regarded as a Christmas song owing to its winter theme. The song was released in no fewer than 8 recordings in 1949 and has been covered numerous times since. 

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Yes the lyrics are outdated and don’t even mention Christmas. But it seems some people have to focus on something idiotic to rage about on social media.

Just because a song is “traditional” doesn’t mean it doesn’t expire at some point in history. I’m sure a lot of people like to listen to old Minstrel show music like “Mammy” sung by actor/singer Al Jolson – in fact film historians consider the film the song appeared in a classic since it was one of the first sound movies – but those kind of bigoted songs aren’t being made or commercially sold today.

Some people will mention the lyrics of rap music as if that is equivalent to ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’. Yes some rap lyrics are questionable and the treatment of women in some songs, especially, is problematic, but the radio doesn’t play the explicit version of most rap songs and in some stores the cleaned up version is the only one you can buy.

Removing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” from play lists isn’t about censorship since you can still listen to it and even buy the many cover versions recorded since the 1940s. Businesses making decisions about what to sell or in this case broadcast isn’t censorship – obviously a Top 40 station won’t play Bluegrass and it shouldn’t be forced to. A station electing not to play the song isn’t ruining Christmas.

A case can be made the song is past it’s prime like “Mammy”. If you have to explain the lyrics in context then the song needs to be in a museum. Besides it doesn’t even mention a holiday so why is it a Christmas song?

A least if you are going to rage about keeping a song about a good girl wanting to spend the night with her male friend, add some Christmas lyrics about presents and chestnuts.

Hold off on the knee jerk reactions and really look into an issue and try to understand how and why someone feels about something they find objectionable.