Monday, December 5, 2011

Baby It's Cold Outside by Frank Loesser

As I typed my last post, I listened to several songs by Doris Day before I chose "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps".  There were others that I liked but I only wanted the very best sound quality to be on there.
I know most people never click on the links to the songs but I honestly spend some time to find the very best of what I want to say! Anyway, one of the songs that I listened to was "Baby It's Cold Outside". 
I only had a vague memory of that song, but I really liked it in the movie, "Elf" and I have found it for you here.  ( Oh, and I really liked that movie too.  Will Ferrell is very often even too silly for ME but I thought this was a sweet movie and the innocence portrayed in this film was I thought quite touching. And Bob Newhart as the Elf Dad and Ed Asner as Santa Claus, they are just perfect!)

There have been so many singers that have sung this song.  I just saw something that said something like 160 artists have recorded it!  It got me to wondering, who WROTE the song?  It was written by Frank Loesser.  Please read more about him here at www.frankloesser.com  "Baby It's Cold Outside"
was in the 1949 movie Neptune's Daughter starring Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban and it won the Academy Award for Best Song.  The interesting thing to me is that he had actually written it  a few years before as a duet for he and his wife to sing at their housewarming party for their friends! Wow, imagine going to a party and having a song like that performed for you! According to what I have read, his wife was furious that he ended up using it for the movie.   And also, there was a bit of a question that it should not have been considered for the Academy Award since it wasn't WRITTEN for the movie.  Since the song had never been sung professionally, it was given the go ahead to be included as a nomination and it did indeed win the Academy Award.

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" was his song all the way, he wrote the words and lyrics.
If you go to the link for Frank Loesser above, you will see that he wrote the lyrics to over 700 songs!   What an amazing talent.  Songwriting is such a wonder to me.  How can anyone take words and music and put them together in such a way that makes them last for years and years and they never grow stale and each new generation can enjoy them?    (And this applies to all music, not just popular music!)    Here is another wonder for me, his daughter, Susan Loesser is a wonderful artist and you can see her work at this site - www.susanloesser.com  All of his children must be so proud every time they hear their father's song on the radio. It does make me think though, that of all the singers that have sung this song, and all those who have listened to it, how many of them know who wrote it?  Hey, they should all read my blog, right?

And it does get cold and snowy in Georgia, here are some photos to prove it! The cedar tree looks really lovely with the snow, doesn't it? Those are our icy cherry trees in our front yard.  Remember them in the snow and I will show you how they look in the Spring.  That's a promise!


8 comments:

  1. No snow in my area just yet, although I heard this morning that not too far away from here, the roads are white. And as usual, car drivers are oh, so surprised that it does indeed snow in December... :-)
    We're having a rainy day here today, and this was badly needed, too, after 6 weeks of virtually NO rain at all.
    As for the snow - I am not keen at all on snow and cold weather, but last year, we had a proper White Christmas which was very pretty. I even posted about it (with pictures) on my blog :-)

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  2. Hi Kay!

    It's been a long time :)

    I don't really like Will Ferrell... he kinda creeps me out... don't know exactly why.

    Anyway,I want to be able to experience "white christmas" someday and I swear that I'll go make snow angels and and a snowman. :)

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  3. Librarian,
    These photos were from about two years ago, in late January, I think. Since just before Halloween we have had some frosty nights and coolish days, but now we are back up to the highs almost being 70 degrees! That's Georgia!
    When it snows here, they usually close the schools! Oddly enough, it snowed HERE on Dec. 25th last year. I need to write about that Christmas day here on my blog, but I don't want to depress anybody!

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  4. Hey Denise!
    Glad to hear from you! I know what you mean, MOST of the movies that Will Ferrell makes, I simply don't care for. But this one...there was just a really sweet nature to it, a true innocence that really spoke to me. Have you ever seen the movie "Groundhog Day"? It was like that, sweet but not cloyingly so. And also, a lot of movies by Adam Sandler can be so over the top either gross or silly but some of them are very, very funny...50 First Dates, The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer...these are all so funny, that last one is a classic and you will love it if you know or like music from the 80's!
    Snow! It's so beautiful here since it is very rare that we get snowfall like the photos that I showed you, sometimes it is mostly ice instead of snow, but that year it was heavenly.

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  5. Definitely no snow over here in Hawaii right now except on Mauna Kea, but I sure would like to see some. When I'm away from it, I miss its beauty. I love your photos. Will Ferrell is not my favorite comedian, but I did think Elf was cute.

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  6. Great post Kay. I remember last year we had the snow so bad. We've got it up North at the moment and there has already been deaths unfortunately. Just hoping we don't have it bad.
    Lovely song. Great film too. I enjoy your you tubes!
    Love Suex

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  7. Kay,
    These snowy photos were taken in the past few years, it is back to being warm in Georgia, but that is always the case AFTER we have had a killing frost!
    Elf is a sweet movie and one that you may take a child to and also be entertained as an adult, similar to the new Muppet movie, which I hope you will see too!
    Thanks for your comment!

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  8. Sue,
    Those snowy photos that my husband took in our yard are very unusual in Georgia. That was the most beautiful snow and it was all snow, usually we have snow mixed with ice!
    Oh, I am glad that you like the Youtube clips that I pick out! You MUST have good taste!!

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