Yesterday, stepping out into the 42C heat of Dubai, I said to myself “man it’s hot outside”. From there it was but a short hop-skip-and-jump to remembering one of my favourite oldies from ‘Forces Request’ – “Baby It’s Cold Outside” – funny how the mind works, right? And inevitably, that set off a train of thought about oldies that were staples on that program, bringing me to “Sink The Bismarck” and “King of The Road”. I suspect I’m one of the very few that remembers these oldies – hope you enjoy them!  

For some reason the version of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” we always heard on All India Radio was the one by Nina and Fred(erik). I so vividly remember Philip Neelam announcing “here are Nina and Fred with “Baby, It’s Cold Outside””.  The song would start with a smattering of applause and Nina’s lovely voice would say “I really can’t stay”.  I really liked this song and its witty lyrics and Nina & Fred’s voices are etched in my mind forever. For some reason, this song always painted a picture of 50’s Rock Hudson and Doris Day in my head – I think it would be perfect for ‘Pillow Talk’ ! The song is a wonderfully cute and coy back and forth between two soon-to-be-lovers – sexy and flirtatious, with more implied than said, both protagonists indulging in verbal foreplay! Although…..I think I first heard this song before I knew what foreplay was 😂

What I really liked was the funnier second half of the song, an inversion of the song, with Nina taking the lead and Fred playing the part of her bashful English lover, full-on with a posh English accent – despite being a Dane! I guess at the time I first heard this song on ‘Forces Request’ I was deep into P.G. Wodehouse, and this funny second half evoked images of Bertie Wooster and Honoria Glossop, where a forceful Englishwoman has to bring a bashful Englishman to accept her affections! I’ve finally managed to track down a YouTube video of that particular recording – it was from Nina and Frederik’s show on BBC show in 1963. My favourite line on the track is this very understanded exchange😁

Woman: Your eyes are like starlight now
Englishman: Oh, don’t be silly!

It was only a few days ago that I found out the history of this delightful song! Apparently, back in the day in Hollywood, hosts who had a singing voice would regale their friends with songs when they came over for parties. So, when Hollywood songwriter Frank Loesser and his wife Lynn were hosting a housewarming party in 1944, Frank wrote this song for him and his wife Lynn to sing as a goodnight song for their friends. The song became a hit on their social circuit! Apparently it earned them invites to the best parties for years. In 1949 Frank sold the song to MGM Studios for use in the movie Neptune’s Daughter, at which point it became an overnight hit across the US. (Lynn Loesser was mightily put out when her husband sold ‘their’ song – I bet Frank had to go out into the storm that night, irrespective of how “cold it was outside”! 😂 ). The song in the movie is in both versions – with the male as well as the female leading the song. Watch the video – it’s very cute! The song won the Best Original Song Oscar that year and raced to the top of the charts. It’s been covered over 400 times by pretty much everyone – from Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles through to Michael Buble, Norah Jones, Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga!

Over the years this has been a staple on the Christmas playlist all over the world. However, in 2018, the song became embroiled in controversy as the #MeToo movement gathered pace. Some listeners in the US & Canada objected to the song as being one where the man coerces the woman to spend the night with him, even concluding that lines, written in 1943, like “say, what’s in this drink” were about the use of date-rape drugs. A few radio stations even took it off their playlist – until an outcry from listeners demanded that we not overthink this song and it was put back on air.  

Another ‘Forces Request’ regular oldie was “Sink The Bismarck”. This rousing marching song, about a WWII naval battle to sink the German battleship Bismarck, was, for young me, the perfect embodiment of Forces Request – songs requested for or by our soldiers out on the front, protecting us at home. To me it sounded exactly like the song that should follow ‘Colonel Bogey March’ (another Force’s Request staple) when the soldiers/sailors were on the parade ground! The song’s chorus has stayed with me for years –

“We’ll find the German battleship that’s makin’ such a fuss
We got to sink the Bismarck ‘cause the world depends on us
Hit the decks a runnin’ boy and spin the guns around
When we find the Bismarck we got to cut her down”

Interestingly, the song was not recorded by some British army band or even a British singer – it was written and sung by American country / honky-tonk star Johnny Horton, the man behind the “historical ballad” craze of the ‘50s and ‘60s. In 1960, 20^th Century Fox made a movie called “Sink The Bismarck!” based on a novel by C.S. Forester called the “The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck”. (Forester wrote many stories of naval warfare that have been made into movies , including The Good Shepherd which became the Tom Hanks movie Greyhound in 2020). This war movie was ground-breaking in its scope and historical accuracy, and set the trend in movies of giving the backroom planning teams as much focus and credit as the sailors and airmen in the frontline. When this movie was set to be released in the US, 20^th Century Fox weren’t sure the American audiences would identify with this twenty-year old British naval battle. So, they commissioned Johnny Horton to write and sing this song. The song was a smash hit, rising to #3 in the US and was the background music for the trailer of the movie when it was launched. Unfortunately, Johnny Horton died in a car accident very soon after the song was released. The song was covered in 2012 by The Blues Brothers – John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd -for the movie “The Blues Brothers” (love that movie!), but the scene was cut on the editing floor.

And finally, “King Of The Road”, the 1965 smash hit by Roger Miller. This lilting ode to hobos and tramps in the American mid-west somehow became one of most remembered tunes from way back when. I’m not sure whether the radio played the original Roger Miller version or the Dean Martin cover, but this romanticisation of a hobo’s life was a really sweet song. Roger Miller was an Oklahoma native, and before breaking through into the singing world, was a journeyman songwriter, writing songs for country stars like Jim Reeves (got to write about Gentleman Jim soon!). Apparently Roger Miller was driving through the US Midwest on one of his tours and saw a sign on the side of a barn that said “Tailers for Sale or Rent” – which became the first line of the song. A few days later, at an airport or hotel gift shop, he bought a small statue of a hobo – that became the inspiration for the entire song, which he wrote in just one evening. The song was a smash hit, crossing over from Country music, and won Miller his second five-for at the Grammys in 1965 – Best Contemporary Rock ‘N Roll Single, Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Best Country & Western Recording, Best Country Vocal Performance, and Best Country Song (he won five Grammys in 1964 as well). It has been covered tons of times by a full roster of artists including Dean Martin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone (he of “Speedy Gonzales” – must write about that soon! fame), Boney M!!! (on the ‘Nightflight To Venus’ album – and it’s not a bad cover either!).

Enjoy!