Radio station stops playing "Baby It's Cold Outside" after listeners voice concerns

Dec 18, 2016
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Radio station stops playing "Baby It's Cold Outside" after listeners voice concerns

Radio station stops playing "Baby It's Cold Outside" after listeners voice concerns about lyrics in #MeToo era


A Cleveland radio station has stopped playing a popular Christmas song that's been around since the 1940s, CBS Cleveland affiliate WOIO-TV reports. Star 102 Cleveland listeners raised concerns about the lyrics of the song "Baby It's Cold Outside," with some saying the words send the wrong message in the era of the #MeToo movement.

Radio host Glenn Anderson wrote a blog post about the station's decision to stop playing the song. "We used to play the song 'Baby It's Cold Outside,' but you're the Christmas Executive Officer at Star 102 and you told us it's no longer appropriate," Anderson wrote Tuesday. "I gotta be honest, I didn't understand why the lyrics were so bad ... Until I read them."

The song is a duet between a man and a woman. The woman makes it clear she is worried about being with the man late into the night, while he adamantly tells her to say with him because, "Baby, it's cold outside."

Anderson shared the song's lyrics, which include lines like: "Say, what's in this drink?", "I really can't stay / Baby don't hold out" and "I ought to say no, no, no / Mind if I move in closer?" The woman also wonders aloud what others might think of her if she stays.

Written in 1944, the song rose to popularity in the 1949 film "Neptune's Daughter." It was sung between Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán's characters, and then by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton, who reversed the roles.

The song was written by popular Broadway composer Frank Loesser, who originally performed it as a humorous number with his wife. But the lyrics, in today's context, have taken on somewhat more sinister connotations. After the "Me Too" movement gained momentum in 2017, more women have been speaking out about sexual harassment and assault, and society has become more aware than ever of how widespread the problem really is. The suggestive lines in the song now drum up images of men like Harvey Weinstein, who's been accused of preventing women from leaving hotel rooms, and Bill Cosby, who was convicted of drugging and sexual assaulting a woman.

Criticism of the lyrics in "Baby It's Cold Outside" actually has been building for several years. Some Twitter users called out the "date-rapey" undertones of the song in 2013, and a number of publications have run articles questioning the song's meaning.

In 2014, Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé released a duet of the song and changed a few lyrics to be more family-friendly, with lines like, "Maybe just a soda-pop more / Put some records on while I pour." They also had child actors playing the roles of the couple in the music video.


In his blog post, Anderson said the song has no place on today's radio, but also asked listeners what they think and included an online poll question about it.

"Now, I do realize that when the song was written in 1944, it was a different time, but now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong," Anderson wrote. "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. What do you think?" The results of the poll are not visible on Star 102's website.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/clevel...dertones/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=60408652


[Verse 1: Marilyn Maxwell & Dean Martin]
I really can't stay (But, baby, it's cold outside)
I've got to away (But, baby, it's cold outside)
This evening has been (Been hoping that you'd drop in)
So very nice (I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice)
My mother will start worry (Beautiful, what's your hurry?)
My father will be pacing the floor (Listen to the fireplace roar)
So really I'd better scurry (Beautiful, please don't hurry)
But maybe just a half a drink more (Put some records on while I pour)
The neighbors might think (Baby, it's bad out there)
Say what's in this drink (No cab's 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)
I ought to say "No, no, no, sir" (Mind if I move in closer?)
At least I'm gonna say that I tried (What's the sense in hurtin' my pride?)

[Chorus: Marilyn Maxwell, Dean Martin & Both]
I really can't stay
(Oh, baby, don't hold out)
Baby, it's cold outside

[Verse 2: Marilyn Maxwell & Dean Martin]
I simply must go (But, baby, it's cold outside)
The answer is no (But, baby, it's cold outside)
Your welcome has been (How lucky that you dropped in)
So nice and warm (Look out the window at the storm)
My sister will be suspicious (Gosh your lips look delicious)
My brother will be there at the door (Waves upon the tropical shore)
My maiden aunt's mind is vicious (Gosh your lips are delicious)
But maybe just a cigarette more (Never such a blizzard before)
I've gotta get home (But, baby, you'd freeze out there)
Say, lend me a coat (It's up to your knees out there)
You've really been grand (I thrill when you touch my hand)
But don't you see? (How can you do this thing to me?)
There's bound to be talk tomorrow (Think of my lifelong sorrow)
At least there will be plenty implied (If you got pneumonia and died)

[Chorus: Marilyn Maxwell, Dean Martin & Both]
I really can't stay
(Get over that old out)
Baby, it's cold
Baby, it's cold outside

https://genius.com/Dean-martin-baby-its-cold-outside-lyrics
 

badbadboy

Well-known member
Nov 2, 2006
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In Lust Mostly
That's literally the only song I enjoy at Christmas.

Oh well, add that to my politically incorrect things I do.
 

UhOh

Well-known member
Dec 11, 2011
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I've never heard of it before but I see their point. He harassed the shit out of her in that video.
 

Big_Guy_Rye

Pragmatic Pariah
May 7, 2018
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Everywhere in BC
This is as dumb as getting Dire Straits off the radio because they sing about that "faggot with the earring"....
 

MissingOne

Don't just do something, sit there.
Jan 2, 2006
2,229
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I never had any interest in that song, nor in most pop Christmas songs, really. Reading the lyrics, I can see the point of the objections. Pressuring a partner of whatever gender into doing something they're reluctant to do just doesn't fly these days.
 

clu

Active member
Oct 3, 2010
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This is as dumb as getting Dire Straits off the radio because they sing about that "faggot with the earring"....
There was always a radio edit with that line (or maybe it was the entire verse?) removed.

FWIW the song is self-deprecating because they're singing from the perspective of hard-working blue collar people looking down on singers, so not quite the same thing.
 

storm rider

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Dec 6, 2008
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Just another example of Political Correctness doing more harm to society.Fuck I would not like to see if heaven forfend a dentist had the collection of Bedtime stories by Chester A Arthur in his waiting room.....no doubt some fucking SJW would organize
a protest to have the guy tarred and feathered.

Our society is just plain going down the fucking toilet in it's panderings to the easily slighted special interest groups.

SR
 

clu

Active member
Oct 3, 2010
1,268
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Vancouver
PC or not, it's no great loss.

Personally I would like to see all Christmas songs banned.

I'm surprised no one has gone postal over their incessant blaring in shopping malls, with some deluded artist thinking they can bring fresh swagger to the 20th remake of Let It Snow or I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.

I think one of the things I appreciate most about online shopping this time of year is I get to choose my own soundtrack.

p.s. Corey Hart, you idiot: Santa called on Rudolph on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Night. Christmas Night would be too late! The only song I can handle is Greg Lake's Father Christmas: "they said there's be snow on Christmas, they said there'd be peace on Earth. But instead it just kept on raining, a veil of tears for the virgin birth."
 

Oldfart

Long Standing Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,695
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Still lost in the '60s
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a song that sets a terrible example and should be banned.
Rudy is an outcast, whom everyone shames, mocks and bullies.
Until his special talent is needed to help others.
Then suddenly everyone loves him, because they need something
Fuck that selfish shit.
Ban Rudolph!
 

Gardener

Active member
May 9, 2017
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Headlines like this are just click bait. As much as I disagree with political correctness, I also disagree with all the stupid headlines like this. If you’ve paid any attention to the reporting around foreign election meddling, you’ll note that many such divisive stories are planted to sow social discord. I’m always very skeptical of articles like this now.

Btw, I heard this song walking through Pacific Centre today.
 

Cock Throppled

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2003
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Upstairs
How many radio or TV sations play rap and hip hop that is more crude, vulgar, misogynist, violent and hateful towards women? And then there are the videos, that are even worse.
 

JimDandy

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May 17, 2004
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It really is not like Khan (as in The Wrath of Khan) to ask a woman for anything. If I recall, he just took what he wanted and the women generally seemed to like it lol.

I wonder if Ricardo Montalban, reflecting back on his acting career later in life, could have imagined playing such a "he" man like Khan after playing such a wimp as the one he is portraying above in the song lol.

JD
 
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wtfguy

How many radio or TV sations play rap and hip hop that is more crude, vulgar, misogynist, violent and hateful towards women? And then there are the videos, that are even worse.
Yes, this!!! People are worried about the innocent lyrics of a song written in the 40's, vs the BS that passes as music today??! It's a sad state of the world when people get so oversensitive about the wrong things...
 

JimDandy

Well-known member
May 17, 2004
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Lower Mainland, B.C.
Yes, this!!! People are worried about the innocent lyrics of a song written in the 40's, vs the BS that passes as music today??! It's a sad state of the world when people get so oversensitive about the wrong things...
Especially when you consider how many gangsta rap songs refer to women as hoes and worse in their lyrics. These songs pass muster and get radio play but not "Baby it's cold outside" ?!?!

JD
 

JimDandy

Well-known member
May 17, 2004
3,125
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Lower Mainland, B.C.
Here are some other Xmas songs that are sure to banned soon:

1. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus: subjecting minors to softcore porn

2. The Christmas Song: Open fire? Pollution. Folks dressed up like Eskimos? Cultural appropriation

3. Holly Jolly Christmas: Kiss her once for me? Unwanted advances

4. White Christmas? Racist

5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town: Sees you when you’re sleeping? Knows when you’re awake? Peeping Tom stalker

6. Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Everyone telling you be of good cheer? Forced to hide depression

7. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Bullying

8. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: Forced gender-specific gifts: dolls for Janice and Jen and boots and pistols (GUNS!) for Barney and Ben

9. Santa Baby: Gold digger, blackmail

10. Frosty the Snowman: Sexist; not a snow woman

11. Do You Hear What I Hear: blatant disregard for the hearing impaired

12. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: Make the yuletide GAY? Wow, just wow

13. Jingle Bell Rock: Giddy up jingle horse, pick up your feet: animal abuse

14. Mistletoe and Holly: Overeating, folks stealing a kiss or two? How did this song ever see the light of day?

15. Winter Wonderland: Parson Brown demanding they get married…forced partnership

16. I'll Be Home For Christmas: Not if you are homeless. That's just Insensitive

17. Grandma got ran over by a reindeer: Homicide. Extremely violent and promotes alcoholism.”
 
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