The song is a well-known pop standard, recorded by many artists, including a duet between Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby (for their album Fancy Meeting You Here (1958)), Ella Fitzgerald, Joni James, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Buffett, Fats Domino and Liza Minnelli.
In the UK, the biggest hit version was recorded in 1959 by Emile Ford and the Checkmates, which peaked at #3 in the official singles chart.
Miss Piggy performed the song with actor Roger Moore in an episode of The Muppet Show.
My father turned it into a romantic song, placing the title in the mainstream of catch-phrases in 1947.The idea is that a slow boat to China was the longest trip one could imagine.
Loesser moved the phrase to a more romantic setting, yet it eventually entered general parlance to mean anything that takes an extremely long time.