Today in Music (1949): “Baby It’s Cold Outside” first charted

Baby It’s Cold Outside Margaret Whiting & Johnny Mercer with Paul Weston’s Orchestra

Writer(s): Frank Loesser (see lyrics here) Recorded: March 18, 1949 First Charted: May 14, 1949 Peak: 3 BB, 4 BS, 3 DJ, 8 JB, 4 GA, 6 HP (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 6.1 video, 14.64 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Frank Loesser wrote “Baby It’s Cold Outside” in 1944. WK He performed it at parties with his wife, Lynn Garland, as a way to hint to guests that it was time to leave. WK To Garland’s shagrin, Loesser sold it to MGM in 1948 to be featured in the 1949 romantic comedy Neptune’s Daughter. WK In the movie it was sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban and reprised by Red Skelton and Betty Garrett. It won the Oscar for Best Song and has become a Christmas favorite. It never mentions the holiday but does have a winter theme. Before the movie was even released on June 9, 1949, a version of the song by Dinah Shore & Buddy Clark (#4) was released. A week later, Johnny Mercer & Margaret Whiting hit the charts (#3) with what would become the most successful version of the song. Other versions followed that year. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan also took the song to the top 10 (#9) and theirs was named one of the top 100 songs of all time by Time magazine. That same year, there were chart versions by Sammy Kaye’s Orchestra featuring Don Cornell & Laura Leslie (#12) and “a comical country parody” TY1 featuring Homer & Jethro with June Carter (#22). PM The song was also recorded in 1949 by Bing Crosby & James Stewart, Doris Day & Bob Hope, Frank Loesser & Lynn Garland, Dean Martin & and Marilyn Maxwell. There have also been chart versions by Ray Charles & Betty Carter (1961, #91 BB), Rod Stewart & Dolly Parton (2004, #2 AC), Dean Martin & Martina McBride (2006, #7 AC, 36 CW), Willie Nelson & Norah Jones (2009, #55 CW), the Glee Cast (2010, #57 BB), She & Him (2011, #16 AC), Idina Menzel & Michael Bublé (2014, #1 AC, 58 CN, 51 AU), Seth MacFarlane & Sara Bareilles (2014, #10 AC), and Darius Rucker & Sheryl Crow (2014, #13 AC). There have been over 400 recordings of the song, including versions by Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton, Eddie Fisher & June Hutton, Sammy Davis Jr. & Carmen McRae, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé, Al Hirt & Ann-Margret, Barry Manilow & K.T. Oslin, Bette Midler & James Caan, Lee Ann Womack & Harry Connick Jr., James Taylor & Natalie Cole, Darius Rucker & Sheryl Crow, Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood, John Farnham & Olivia Newton-John, John Legend & Kelly Clarkson, and the Glee Cast. WK During the #MeToo movement of recent years, the song has come under fire because it focuses on a man pressuring a woman to stay with him. Some radio stations even banned the song in 2018. There have been those, including Loesser’s daughter, who argued that people need to understand that times were different then. However, Time magazine points out that even in 1949 the song was controversial with NBC initially banning it. TM Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Frank Loesser DMDB encyclopedia entry for Johnny Mercer DMDB encyclopedia entry for Margaret Whiting TM (12/23/2020). “‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ Was Controversial from the Beginning. Here’s What to Know About Consent in the 1940s” TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 474. WK Wikipedia First posted 12/23/2023.

   

50 years ago: The Dorsey Brothers hit #1 with “Lullaby of Broadway”

Lullaby of Broadway The Dorsey Brothers’ Orchestra with Bob Crosby

Writer(s): Harry Warren (music), Al Dubin (words) (see lyrics here) First Charted: April 6, 1935 Peak: 12 US, 12 HP, 14 GA, 14 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.04 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Jimmy Dorsey was an alto saxophonist and clarinetist born in 1904 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. His younger brother, Tommy, was a trombonist born a year later. In 1928, they first charted together and would go on to chart separately and together more than 300 times. Collectively they had thirty-one #1 hits. While most of their hits were with separate orchestras, their first 26 hits were as the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. Their very first #1 came in 1935 with their version of “Lullaby of Broadway” which featured a twenty-one-year-old Bob Crosby on vocals. The song “about the town that never sleeps” SM was first featured in the movie Gold Diggers of 1935, sung by Wini Shaw and Dick Powell. Lyricist Al Dubin and composer Harry Warren wrote the songs in the film after experiencing success with Forty Second Street. Gold Diggers of 1935 focused on “a woman of the night whose morals are questionable but whose heart is gold.” TY2 That same year the song was also featured in the Bette Davis movie Special Agent the James Cagney film G Men, and the “Page Miss Glory” Merrie Melodies cartoon. WK “Lullaby of Broadway” won the Oscar for Best Song and Powell’s version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Doris Day sang it in the 1951 movie Lullaby of Broadway. DJ It was also featured in The Jolson Story (1946) and Young Man with a Horn (1950). TY2 The Dorsey Brothers’ version was one of five versions to chart in 1935. The others were by singer and pianist Little Jack Little (#5), pianist Reginald Foresythe (#11), Hal Kemp’s Orchestra (#14), and Chick Bullock’s Orchestra (#19). PM The song has also been recorded by the Andrews Sisters, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Connie Francis, Harry James’ Orchestra, and Bette Midler. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Dorsey Brothers DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bob Crosby DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 126. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 213. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 129-139 and 545. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 3/16/2023.

Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” hit #1

I Just Called to Say I Love You Stevie Wonder

Writer(s): Stevie Wonder (see lyrics here) Released: August 1, 1984 First Charted: August 18, 1984 Peak: 13 US, 14 CB, 12 RR, 13 AC, 13 RB, 16 UK, 13 CN, 18, 3 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.91 UK, 4.54 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 160.3 video, 303.20 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer Dionne Warwick was the song coordinator for the movie The Woman in Red. She suggested Stevie Wonder for the score to the Gene Wilder film. Despite Wonder being blind, he “watched” the film and, according to Warwick, “He saw the film. There’s no way in the world that you can write the pieces of music that he wrote, for the sequences he wrote for, so directly.” FB Jay Lasker, who was then the president of Motown Records, wasn’t too excited. He discouraged Wonder from doing the soundtrack because it had already been four years since his last album and he wasn’t sold on the first three songs Wonder had written for the movie. Wonder responded with “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” Lasker’s response was that it “is probably going to be the biggest single in the history of Stevie Wonder. This is the record I picked and said I wanted out as a single.” FB Lasker’s hunch was right. The song topped a record 19 charts and remains Wonder’s best-selling single. WK It was his eighth chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100 and tenth on the R&B chart. It was his only solo trip to the top in the UK, where it also became Motown’s biggest-selling single ever. WK Songwriters Lloyd Chiate and Lee Garrett, a former writing partner with Wonder, sued him in October 1985. They claimed he stole the title and chorus idea for the song from a song they wrote in September 1976 called “Hello It’s Me/I Just Called to Say.” During the testimony, Wonder said he wrote the chorus on July 16, 1976 when coming home from visiting his mother. He also said he had John Lennon in mind when he worked on the song, imagining the Beatles singing with him. SF Chiate dropped the lawsuit in 1986, but Chiate continued it. In 1990, a jury ruled in favor of Wonder. SF The fact that Wonder said he’d written much of the song in 1976 put its Oscar win for Best Song in doubt since songs were only eligible in the category which had been written specifically for film. However, no action was taken and Wonder kept the award. SF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Stevie Wonder FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 596. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/14/2019; last updated 10/28/2022.

Isaac Hayes hit #1 with “Shaft”

Theme from Shaft Isaac Hayes

Writer(s): Isaac Hayes (see lyrics here) First Charted: September 24, 1971 Peak: 12 BB, 12 CB, 12 GR, 12 HR, 6 AC, 2 RB, 4 UK, 11 CN, 7 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 23.0 video, 61.88 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “The blaxploitation movies of the ’70s…were cheap movies, made quickly…[but] a lot of the lead performances — the ones from Pam Grier, Jim Brown, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson — are absolutely magnetic.” SG “But most of them are not pure cinematic wonders, except on one aspect. That aspect is music.” SG These “formulaic movies had soundtracks from straight-up black-pop geniuses, all working at or near their peaks.” SG The best of them all may have been Shaft, a “tough and terse detective movie with a charismatic performance from the then-unknown Richard Roundtree” SG and a theme song from Isaac Hayes. He was “a self-taught visionary who was right in the midst of remaking soul music in his own image.” SG He “grew up dirt-poor in Tennessee,” SG eventually working as a keyboardist, arranger, and songwriter at Stax Records, the “sweaty, grimy alternative to what Motown was doing at the time.” SG Hayes “established the blueprint for an influential new funky stew” TB in which R&B shifted “towards fun and towards a jazzier, blacker sound.” TC He dug up a cut he’d made a year earlier. TB The resulting “Theme from Shaft”was “a stunning and ambitious and deeply funky piece of beautiful silliness” SG in which Hayes was in on the joke. He “figured out how to communicate everything you needed to know…about the movie, about the character, and about the entire nascent genre of films.” SG Musically, the song “keeps piling on new elements…it’s a groove that keeps expanding.” SG Lyrically, Hayes croons praises “in his rumbling bass voice” TC about “the black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks,” SG knowing he’s being “both massively cool and deeply goofy.” SG “There’s a humor in his interplay with the backing singers, the ones who crow ‘shut your mouth’ when he starts to cuss.” SG Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Isaac Hayes TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 812. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 193. SG Stereogum (2/12/2019). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 131. First posted 1/18/2024.