What you Don’t Know About “Baby, it’s Cold Outside”

It’s not the “rapey” abomination you think it is.

“Baby, it’s Cold Outside” is an evergreen winter favorite, and deservedly so. It was ubiquitous on holiday albums, and just about every jazz singer has covered it. Sometime during the past few years, though, it has been put on Santa’s “Naughty List.” Social critics have decried it, radio stations have removed it from playlists, and friendships have fizzled between its defenders and detractors.

We need to rescue this song and return it to the panoply of popular holiday standards, where it belongs.

It is not the rapey abomination you think it is.

Here, let me show you.

Frank Loesser, who wrote the music for Guys and Dolls, created “Baby” as a good night song he and his wife performed at their parties to signal to guests that it was time to leave. His wife called it their “ticket to parties,” because it garnered them so many invitations. Loesser borrowed the tune from his private life and used it for a comic scene in the 1949 film, “Neptune’s Daughter.” It won the Academy Award for best song, and it is remembered far better than the film.

“Neptune’s Daughter is an Esther Williams swimming vehicle with Technicolor shots of Williams and the traditional bevy of beauties performing water ballet and modeling sleek beachwear. I know. I know. The more I say about it, the more…