Brett Eldredge – Baby, It’s Cold Outside feat. Sofia Reyes (Latin Version)

Socially Distanced In The Studio Where Sinatra Recorded

Released November 20, 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” featuring Sofia Reyes offered a bilingual reimagining of the controversial 1944 Frank Loesser classic. The track never charted on major Billboard lists but generated significant streaming attention, with Brett Eldredge’s original 2016 version featuring Meghan Trainor having already accumulated over 207 million Spotify streams. But here’s what makes this 2020 version remarkable: Eldredge and Reyes recorded the entire performance at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles sitting socially distanced across from each other, trading verses in Spanish and English while wearing formal attire—him in a tuxedo, her in a shimmering gold gown. The video captured them in the same historic room where Frank Sinatra, one of Eldredge’s biggest influences, had laid down vocals for multiple albums, creating an inadvertent time capsule of pandemic-era recording constraints meeting old Hollywood glamour.

The timing positioned Eldredge as country music’s Christmas crooner during an uncertain holiday season. His 2016 debut holiday album Glow had debuted at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and number two on Top Country Albums, selling 14,000 first-week copies and eventually moving 94,800 units by January 2017. The album generated his annual Glow tour, which became a Nashville holiday tradition alongside the Grand Ole Opry Christmas shows. By 2020, Eldredge had established himself as the genre’s premier interpreter of classic holiday material, drawing comparisons to Michael Bublé for his ability to honor vintage arrangements while bringing contemporary vocal technique. The Sofia Reyes collaboration expanded his reach into Latin markets, with the Mexican singer-songwriter adding credibility through her multiple Latin Grammy nominations and massive streaming numbers throughout Central and South America.

The original song emerged from Frank Loesser’s 1944 Hotel Navarro housewarming party in New York, where he and his wife Lynn performed it to entertain guests. MGM purchased it for the 1949 film Neptune’s Daughter, where it appeared twice and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. By 2020, approximately 475 professional versions existed, but the song had become lightning rod controversy following the MeToo movement. Radio stations including WDOK in Cleveland dropped it in 2018, interpreting the female character’s line about what’s in this drink as implying date rape drugs rather than the 1940s joke about alcohol going straight to one’s head. Eldredge navigated this minefield by maintaining the traditional structure while emphasizing playful flirtation over predatory insistence. The Sofia Reyes version leaned even further into romantic charm by adding Spanish verses that emphasized warmth and invitation rather than pressure.

Recording during November 2020 required strict pandemic protocols that paradoxically enhanced the production’s intimate feel. The Capitol Studios session featured both artists maintaining distance while their voices blended seamlessly through careful mixing. Eldredge had specifically chosen Capitol because of his reverence for Sinatra, whose Capitol recordings from the 1950s and 1960s represented the platonic ideal of what Eldredge wanted his holiday music to achieve: timeless sophistication that could be enjoyed decades after recording. The production team preserved the big band arrangement from Eldredge’s 2016 version while adding Latin percussion flourishes that matched Reyes’s Spanish verses. Her vocal runs complemented Eldredge’s smooth baritone without overwhelming it, creating the balance that makes successful duets work across language barriers. The arrangement emphasized brass and strings in ways that recalled both Sinatra’s Capitol albums and contemporary Latin pop productions.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” first appeared on Glow, released October 28, 2016, which also reached number two on Top Holiday Albums behind only Pentatonix. The album balanced seven holiday standards including “White Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Silver Bells” with five original compositions. Eldredge’s approach emphasized live instrumentation over electronic production, using full orchestras and big band arrangements that felt transported from Capitol Studios circa 1957. A deluxe edition arrived October 26, 2018, adding seven tracks. By 2021, Eldredge released his second Christmas album Mr. Christmas, and in 2024 announced his third holiday project Merry Christmas (Welcome to the Family) featuring eight original songs and a duet with Kelly Clarkson. The annual Glow tour became so popular that Eldredge expanded it from intimate theaters to venues like Chicago’s historic Chicago Theatre and New York’s Beacon Theatre.

The promotional push emphasized connection during isolation. Eldredge and Reyes appeared virtually on morning shows including Good Morning America and performed on Disney’s Thanksgiving special The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration on ABC. The socially distanced Capitol Studios footage became symbolic of pandemic-era adaptation, showing two artists creating intimacy while maintaining safety protocols. Media coverage focused on the bilingual aspect, with publications noting how the Spanish verses transformed the song’s dynamic from playful negotiation to romantic conversation. Sofia Reyes told interviewers she was honored to introduce the classic to Spanish-speaking audiences while Eldredge admitted he’d always wanted to learn Spanish and appreciated having Reyes as his teacher. The collaboration demonstrated how traditional material could be refreshed through cultural exchange rather than lyrical revision.

Four years later, the Sofia Reyes version stands as evidence of artistic adaptation during impossible circumstances. While John Legend and Kelly Clarkson received criticism for their 2019 consent-focused rewrite, and Dean Martin’s daughter called such changes absolutely absurd, Eldredge chose a different path: maintain the original structure while using different languages and vocal chemistry to shift the song’s emotional temperature from insistence toward invitation. The image of two artists in formal wear sitting socially distanced in Sinatra’s favorite studio, trading verses across languages during a pandemic that made physical closeness dangerous, accidentally captured something profound about how music creates connection when everything else forces separation. Sometimes the best way to honor tradition isn’t through preservation or revision, but through translation—linguistic, cultural, and emotional—that lets old songs speak to new audiences in languages they understand.