A pop standard with words and music by Frank Loesser. Originally, it was intended to be a Christmas song. In its early years it was played only during Christmas time. In recent years, however, it has been recorded by numerous adult contemporary artists and is played year round but mainly in the colder months when there is snow.

Loesser wrote the duet in 1944 and premiered the song with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their Navarro Hotel housewarming party, and performed it toward the end of the evening, signifying to guests that it was nearly time to end the party. In 1948, after years of informally performing the song at various parties, Loesser sold its rights to MGM, which inserted the song into its 1949 motion picture, Neptune's Daughter.  The film featured two performances of the song: one by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams and the other by Red Skelton and Betty Garrett, the second of which has the roles of wolf and mouse reversed. These performances earned Loesser an Academy Award for Best Original Song  Lynn considered it "their song," and was furious when Loesser sold the song to MGM.

Over the years, the song has been recorded by hundreds of artists almost always as a duet with two popular singers. One interesting note here: the internet has Doris Day as recording the song with everyone from Bing Crosby to Dean Martin and others.  Fact: she NEVER recorded the song.  She DID sing it on the Bob Hope Radio Show in 1949 when it was popular, but just one time.  We have that radio version below.

The most popular versions at the time of its general release in 1949 were these:

MARGARET WHITING & JOHNNY MERCER
(NOT as credited on the internet to Bing Crosby and Doris Day who never sang it)

DINAH SHORE & BUDDY CLARK (up till this time, 47 and 48, Buddy had done all his duets with Doris; probably should have done this too.)

A parody by county stars HOMER AND JETHRO with JUNE CARTER (CASH)

LOUIS ARMSTRONG and ELLA FITZGEERALD  gave us the jazz version of the tune

THE MOST RECENT VERSIONS TO HIT THE POP MARKET AND THE INTERNET ARE THESE:

THE GLEE TV VERSION BY KURT AND BLAINE (THE GAY VERSION)

AND A CONTEMPORARY VERSION FOR COUNTRY FANS FROM LADY ANTEBELLUM

AND HERE IS THE VERSION THAT WAS SUNG ONLY ONCE ON THE RADIO AND NEVER OFFICIALLY RECORDED.  BOB HOPE AND DORIS DAY SING: