Brass Ensemble - Digital Download

SKU: A0.886403

By Ray Charles & Betty Carter. By Frank Loesser. Arranged by Chris Osborn. Film/TV. Score and parts. 49 pages. Chris Osborn Music #3896901. Published by Chris Osborn Music (A0.886403).

Frank Loesser's Academy Award winning Baby It's Cold Outside is a Christmas Classic but started life as a party piece for Loesser and his wife to sing at at celebrity parties. It has been covered by dozens of singers, including Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone for the 2003 film Elf. However, this version is based on Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews' recording from his 1998 album Reload. 

During the 1940s, when Hollywood celebrities attended parties, they were expected to perform. In 1944, Frank Loesser wrote Baby, It's Cold Outside for his wife, Lynn Garland, and himself to sing at a housewarming party in New York City at the Navarro Hotel. They sang the song to indicate to guests that it was time to leave. The song was an instant success and according to his wife We become instant parlor room stars. We got invited to all the best parties for years on the basis of 'Baby.' It was our ticket to caviar and truffles. Parties were built around our being the closing act.

The song started to reach a wider audience when in 1948, after years of performing the song, Loesser sold it to MGM for the 1949 romantic comedy Neptune's Daughter. In the film, Baby, It's Cold Outside was sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán, then by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton, who reversed the roles. The song won the Academy Award.