Monday, July 2, 2012

Better? You Bette!

ANDREW BOLT has dug up an audio track of Dean Martin singing Baby, It's Cold Outside, which may introduce the younger set to a fine song and the rather different morality of the era that produced it. A better version, minus the annoying girly chorus, is the one by Bette Midler and, of all people, James Caan, which was shot for For The Boys but ended up on the cutting room floor. That scrapped footage can be viewed below, but to hear the song properly and in full, buy the film's soundtrack.


UPDATE: Also from For The Boys, Middler's take on PS, I Love You:


7 comments:

  1. Yep, "Colder than a Mother-in-Law's Kiss!!!!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. James In FootscrayJuly 2, 2012 at 7:11 AM

    Rhapsodising about Dean Martin and morality?! Remember this one:

    "Brother you can't go to jail for what you're thinking
    Or for that wooed look in your eye
    Standing on the corner watching all the girls
    Watching all the girls, watching all the girls go by"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.July 2, 2012 at 11:51 AM

    Always had a soft spot for Bette Midler, Prof.

    Mostly though, how good are those old songs? You'd be surprised how many of them are being re-sung by today's songsters. Even today we love them because they express how, in a simpler time, men and women could freely admit how much they loved and cared and longed for each other.

    Nothing changes actually, which is why people are singing the old songs again, tenderly and with old role modelling revelling in the sheer joy of what it means to love with all the post-modern gloves off.

    Went into one of those coffee shop and wine shops that Melbourne has but Sydney doesn't much have the other day and they were belting out that old 40's piece "Put another nickel in". Made me dance around the table before I sat down. Such music puts a shine on the day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. James, compared to most of today's musical offerings that sentiment is quaint and G rated.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The version by Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PceqPkTdYgA ) is pretty good, too: HOT horn arrangement as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. How about: Nora Jones and Willie Nelson?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_-XMZjWGF4&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  7. My favourite from that movie - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH1iubPJJxA

    ReplyDelete