The song was released in eight recordings in 1949—including well-known versions by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan, Hot Lips Page and Pearl Bailey, and by Dean Martin and Marilyn Maxwell—and has been covered numerous times since.
In 1944, Loesser wrote "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to sing with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their housewarming party in New York City at the Navarro Hotel.
"[2] According to Esther Williams, the producers of Neptune's Daughter had planned to use a different Loesser song, "(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China", but studio censors thought it was too suggestive and replaced it with "Baby.
The lyrics consist of the host trying to convince the guest that she should stay for a romantic evening because he fears her getting too cold outside, despite the fact that she feels she should return home to her concerned family and neighbors.
[6] In the film Neptune's Daughter, the song is first performed by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams in the conventional manner, then with a comic parody twist by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton: this time the man wants to leave and the woman wants him to stay.
[8][9] While studying in the United States in 1949, the future leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb, reportedly expressed outrage with the song and its perceived decadent use at dance in a church.
[11][12] However, others have noted that cultural expectations at the time of the song's writing were such that ladies were not socially permitted to spend the night with gentlemen to whom they were not married and that the woman states that she wants to stay, while "What's in this drink?"
[17] On November 30, 2018, Cleveland, Ohio, radio station WDOK Star 102 announced that it had removed the song from its playlist due to its lyric content, based on listener input, amid the MeToo movement.