The story behind "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Wikipedia: "Loesser wrote the duet in 1944 and premiered the song with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their Navarro Hotel in New York housewarming party, and performed it toward the end of the evening, signifying to guests that it was nearly time to end the party. Loesser would introduce himself as the "Evil of Two Loessers", a play on the theme of the song, trying to keep the girl from leaving, and on the phrase "lesser of two evils". This was a period when the Hollywood elite's chief entertainment was throwing parties and inviting guests who were expected to perform. Garland wrote that after the first performance, "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." Garland considered it their song and was furious when Loesser told her he was selling the song. Garland wrote, "I felt as betrayed as if I'd caught him in bed with another woman."

The 1948 movie "Neptune's Daughter" saw the official debut of the Academy Award winning "Baby It's Cold Outside" (Frank Loesser) as sung by stars Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams.

As was the practise at the time "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was recorded by several established acts at virtually the same time. The tune hit for Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer, the team of Don Cornell and Laura Leslie with Sammy Kaye's Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan and even June Carter with Homer and Jethro. The first issue and most successful was by Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark whose cover of "Baby It's Cold Outside" in 1949 reached number four on Billboard.