Should We Play “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
A few years ago people started to really listen to this song in a different way. The climate of our country, and the world, has changed a lot since the first adaptation of the song came out in 1949. Johnny Mercer and Margret Whiting first released the song as a duet. In recent years the song was covered by lots of contemporary artists that saw nothing wrong with it. As recently as 2014 there is a version by Michael Buble and Idina Menzel. It sticks strictly to the original lyrics.
It's just a holiday classic, right? If you listen closely to the lyrics, it actually sounds like a man pushing himself on a woman. Back in the day people used to just think that women were just playing hard to get. They wanted more from you, and the only way to really find out, was to take it. Taking the initiative first, and not taking no for an answer. That's what this song is really all about.
My94.7 has gone all Christmas music, and we are not playing the song. Listeners have always voted to keep the song, as a classic. A snapshot of a world, a simpler time. These days of the #MeToo movement, we look at these "good old days" a little differently. Perhaps the men were the ones telling the story about those times. Women back then, if they had a voice, might have told a different story. When this song was written, women had only been allowed to vote in America for less than 20 years.
What do you think, should we play this song, and all of the new versions? Let us know in the comments below.