The news of radio stations banning the holiday classic song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” has reached the writer’s daughter, Susan Loesser, and she’s blaming Bill Cosby.
“Bill Cosby ruined it for everybody,” Susan Loesser told NBC News. “Way before #Me Too, I would hear from time to time people call it a date rape song. I would get annoyed because it’s a song my father wrote for him and my mother to sing at parties. But ever since Cosby was accused of drugging women, I hear the date rape thing all the time.”
Earlier this year, Cosby was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting one victim, while dozens of other women have made similar accusations.
In the era of the #MeToo movement, the song has come under fire in recent years due to lyrics like “I’ve got to go away… Hey, what’s in this drink?” and, “The answer is no,” which was spoofed in a 2015 sketch on Saturday Night Live.
Frank Loesser, the song’s writer, wouldn’t be happy about the ban. “I think my father would be furious at that,” she told NBC News. “People used to say ‘what’s in this drink’ as a joke. You know, this drink is going straight to my head so what’s in this drink? Back then it didn’t mean you drugged me.”
Still, deejays are hesitant to play the song.“I didn’t understand why the lyrics were so bad,” said Glenn Anderson from Cleveland’s Star 102 radio, “… until I read them.”
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