By Glenn Hicks

Is the fuss about a 1940s Christmas hit song justified?

Dec 12, 2018 | 4:00 PM

For some it’s just innocent Christmas time fun, but for others it’s an insensitive throwback that has no place in modern society.

The holiday classic song Baby It’s Cold Outside has garnered far more attention this year than its critics would have liked. And now it’s back in the spotlight after a topsy-turvy stance on its airing by the national broadcaster that seems to mimic the ‘will she won’t she’ to-and-fro spirit of the duet originally penned in 1944.

On Tuesday the CBC, in response to widespread complaints from its audience, decided to reverse an earlier decision to pull the song from its programming. The initial move to drop the song came amid concerns from some that its tone and message was akin to date-rape. It features lyrics such as;

The neighbors might think (baby, it’s bad out there)
Say what’s in this drink? (no cabs to be had out there)

And

Court proceedings

Guilty pleas entered by man involved in robbery of young volleyball player

1h ago

Helping hand

Royal Purple Elks mark Speech and Hearing Month with donation to Princess Margaret School

1h ago

PERMANENT SHELTER

City of P.A. asking property and land owners for help in finding new shelter location

3h ago

I ought to say, no, no, no sir (mind if I move in closer?)
At least I’m gonna say that I tried (what’s the sense in hurtin’ my pride?)

However, some supporters of the song interpret the lyrics, written by Frank Loesser in the 40s, as just a fun duet that captures the essence of flirting in that era.

In announcing its reversal, CBC said in a statement that it valued their audience’s input, “which was overwhelmingly to include the song, [and] we have put it back on the two playlists where it had been removed.”

A long time broadcaster in the Prince Albert region wondered what all the fuss was about in the first place.

“It’s puzzling why there’s even a concern about it,” Neil Headrick, who was a show host for over thirty years with 900 CKBI, told paNOW. “This song has been played for years and years. It was kind of harmless and simple and just a fun song that you might hear three of four times in the Christmas season.”

However, Headrick said this isn’t the first time a song had come in for some criticism.

“Every year there’s at least one or two people concerned about the playing of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, but it’s just a song and it’s not likely going to change anybody,” he said.

Meanwhile a women’s advocate in Prince Albert figured while the song’s lyrics were not appropriate in the modern context, they were from a different time.

“I think that it’s a comment on how life was,” Pat Leson, the president of the P.A. Council of Women said. “It’s something we can move forward on and we can’t change the past; let’s embrace it and say ‘this isn’t the way the world is today’ and let’s move on.”

Leson said she hoped this sort of song wouldn’t be written in today’s world and she’d like to see a remake with the piece done in a different way.

While it remains to be seen if the debate over a song written over 70 years ago will continue, Leson figured the attention garnered in recent weeks had been worthwhile.

“It has brought that whole date rape idea and what is and isn’t consent into focus so for that reason it’s a good thing,” she said. “But we have to move on from it. We learn from history and we move on.”

According to an unscientific poll question on paNOW over 98 per cent of respondents thought people were over-reacting about the song or figured it was a none issue. 

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow