Dean Martin’s classic Christmas song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has reached the top 10 digital sales chart for the first time ever, despite recent controversy over whether the lyrics promote sexual harassment.
According to Billboard, sales of Martin’s versions of song were up 70 percent to 11,000 downloads in the week ending December 13th, while versions by Michael Bublé and Idina Menzel, as well as Brett Eldredge and Meghan Trainor, have both reached the holiday 100 with a sharp increase in sales.
As well as the rise in downloads, online streams of Martin’s version have also surged by 35 percent to 11.1 million in the past week.
The song’s newfound success comes after the widely reported controversy where various local radio stations denounced and attempted to censor the song, citing claims it promotes forms of data rape and sexual harassment.
First written in 1944 for the romantic comedy film Neptune’s Daughter, Martin’s lyrics and the video involves a man asking a woman to spend the night with him by arguing that it is too cold for her to go outside and walk home.
However, attempts to banish the song appear to have spectacularly backfired, with many people pledging to play the song in protest of the excesses of political correctness, a reality now borne out by statistics.
Several celebrities — including William Shatner, Dennis Quaid, and Martin’s daughter Deana have all come out in defense of the song, with the latter pledging to continue performing it every Christmas season.
On Sunday, a Kentucky radio station even trolled critics by playing the song on repeat for two hours.
“I’m not sure why it’s controversial,” said Joe Fredele, director of programming for the WLKY station. “We’ve played this song for years, you know, this song is older than WAKY is. It’s almost 70 years old.”
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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