In 2018, Miley Cyrus lit up the internet with what nearly every headline writer called a “feminist” rewrite of Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby.”upon The Tonight Showshe explained that Kit was offended by the original lyric of the 1953 Christmas classic, which lists all the extravagant gifts she wanted. , are you saying I’m going to hook up with Santa?” Cyrus says he can buy his stuff from Santa before he runs the update so men can talk about her or get their butts off. Thank you very much for asking me to stop grabbing.
feminist publications mizu magazinemeanwhile, included Kit’s sultry songs on that list Top 10 Feminist Christmas Songs In 2020, Julia Cornick wrote:[Kitt] In the 1950s and ’60s, she was ahead of her time when it came to sexual positivity, embracing “her persona as a gold digger whose sexual powers make men into helpless little boys.”
‘Santa Baby’ is decidedly divisive, according to a recent poll by the polling website YouGov America Perhaps because research shows that money is one of the most uncomfortable topics for Americans to talk about. It’s certainly at the center of the scandalous “Santa Baby” that’s still going on almost 70 years later.
“Santa Baby” wasn’t Kit’s only Christmas song, but it provides important context and nuance when heard alongside her other holiday songs.
It’s important to note that money has affected Kit’s life and career from the start. I was taken into the glamorous social world.In her 1989 autobiography sex kitty confessions, Kit recalls that Rubirosa, the legendary playboy, wanted to take her to Maxim’s dinner. When she complained that she had nothing to wear, he sent an assistant to take Kit shopping for her clothes.At dinner, he asked her to give her an extra set of pearls. I gave you
As a performer, she often dealt with cash flow issues, but she continued to feature frequent luxury items in her shows. Some movement was inevitable,” writes Kit. “An elderly gentleman who had this same experience put a box on the table with a black ribbon that clearly said ‘Cartier’. It made itself known to me by sitting on display, and throughout the second show I was dying to know who it was for. brought it to my dressing room with Maître de and said, ‘I’m an old fashioned millionaire and not only do I want to give you this gift, it’s not a big deal, but you too I want to give you the certificate of my yacht standing in the harbor of San Francisco. It is made entirely of Japanese teak and has a crew of seven.
The relationship between wealth and sexuality has been the subtext (if not the entire text) of many of her songs, including her signature number, “Monotonous.” The new face of 1952, the Broadway show that launched the kit. In it, she complained about her monotonous life as her rich man bought her elaborate and expensive gifts. Monotonous. ”
“Santa Baby” fits seamlessly into that artistic profile. Songwriters Philip Springer and Joan Javits wrote the song specifically for Kit in 1953 at the request of Kit’s record label, his RCA Victor. Springer struggled to match Kit’s sensual image with Christmas, but he was purely a man of melody.
Javits’ lyrics were in concert with the rest of Kit’s songbook up to that point, and according to Kit’s daughter, Kit Shapiro, were closer to the truth than Javits realized. In the memoirs of the life of eartha and kit, she talks about some sugar daddy relationships Earsa had. Among them was an affair with a banker’s heiress who “flooded her with lavish gifts, including an emerald ring surrounded by diamonds and her first mink swag.”
The book also links the singer to Revlon founder Charles Revson, who is 20 years older than Kit and pampered her with similarly expensive gifts. The relationship fell apart when it became clear that she would never be more than his mistress.”Her mother never wanted to be anyone’s mistress,” Shapiro writes. “She wanted to be important enough to be someone’s wife.”
Kit explained in a 2007 NPR interview: Well, all the men who have done it with me have never been with me.
Still, it’s easy to hear what made “Santa Baby” so transcendent. It was smart and ambitious, but it presented a self-possessed Black woman who was outspoken about wanting better things in life.Kit was more than lip service to her romantic details. Presented the relationship as a game of power her.
“It was smart and ambitious, but it presented a self-possessed black woman who was outspoken about wanting better things in life. I presented the relationship as a power game.”
Like burlesque, “Santa Baby” looks more scandalous than it actually is. Kit promises surprisingly little, but her words connote a world of sensual pleasures. The song overwhelmed politicians, and Springer said some Southern radio stations banned it for being too suggestive, but it didn’t hurt its chart performance. “Santa Baby” ranked 4th, billboard report At the time, “Unlike many other Christmas tunes, it broke the deejay’s ‘no Christmas music in November’ sound barrier and had already gained a lot of airtime.”
“Santa Baby” begins with the identity of Santa Claus in the song and prompts many questions. Is Kit singing to St. Nicholas or to her lover? Using “Santa” as a holiday nickname? How serious is that list? Is an entire elaborate inventory of luxury desires (convertibles, yachts, duplexes, etc.) an excuse to end up with the only thing that matters: the ring? A way, and what was considered a violation of gender roles at the time? Phillip Springer thought so.
“Remember it said, ‘Santa baby, I forgot to mention the ring,’? That was my line,” he said. said to deseret news 2018.
“Santa Baby” left those questions quivering, but a year later it turns out things aren’t going quite as planned for its sultry protagonist.
“Santa Baby” was so successful that RCA Victor requested a follow-up tune. Springer and Javits delivered quite literally in his 1954 “Santa Baby of the Year”. Javits updated the story with new lyrics to Springer’s music, and even if the marriage took place as Springer suggested, it is never mentioned. It means that the gift you gave failed or didn’t keep its promise.
“Santa baby, that Cadillac is falling apart and won’t start,” Kitt sings in a sort of 1954 sequel. “A private plane would be smart/Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight.” Again and again, she responded to her disappointment by raising her demands. The yacht she wanted leaked, so the next year she wanted the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth.
For those who thought of Kit as a “Santa Baby” gold digger, this is karmic retribution and a valuable lesson in capitalist society. Luxury fell short of its promises, but as a fine capitalist, Kit’s solution on this song is simply more than that. Her belief in their promise is unwavering.
“This Year’s Santa Baby” didn’t chart, probably because the song isn’t very good. “Santa Baby” is playful, making listeners consider the nature of relationships and how seriously they take them. “Santa Her Baby This Year” didn’t build on that and flattened the dynamic by maxing out her Christmas her list. Asking for a platinum mine and a box of checks may be bare-bones greedy in “Santa Baby,” but furs and rings sound plausible in certain sparse circles. Nothing was true.
But for Kitt, Christmas wasn’t over, and 1955’s Nothin’ for Christmas was a response to Santa Baby, which exposed patriarchy. Written by Sid Tepper and Ray C. Bennett, “Nothin’ for Christmas” is already paired with one of his kit signatures, “I Want to be Evil.” In it, Kit complains, “A prim, proper, never-kissed girl / Tired of being pure and not being chased.” Her answer to that, in comedic terms, is to be evil, and “bad” as we learn in “Nothin’ for Christmas” means to express it physically. During the song, the men offer gifts such as fur coats, motorboats and trips to Paris. But she got none of it “because I didn’t want to be bad.”
Part of the criticism of “Santa Baby” is that Kit is wrong in using sexuality as a bargaining chip with men, but in “Nothin’ for Christmas” all men are physically We are offering the goods for contact. It’s bad if it’s sexual, but the only way it deserves a Christmas present is to be bad.
As a black woman, the reluctance of the women in Kit’s song to bet big on love applies to her own life, as her relationship with the white man who courted her faced clear limits. I was.according to eartha and kitRevson’s estranged wife once exposed ‘his black mistress’ Then he threatened me.
“Taken together, the song shows that women are in a situation where they can’t win. It’s bad if it’s sexual, but the only way it deserves a Christmas present is to be bad.”
1962, interview With writer Studs Turkel, Kit elaborated on the love-money debate, admitting that she loves fur coats.”I mean, everybody loves wearing mink coats.” I don’t think I’d be happier with more Frigidae in my house,” she said. “Really, these are the things that complicate your life.”
Her song “Mink, schmink” supports that point of view with the lines “Mink schmink, money schmink/You think you’re hot now, you’re not honey/What do you have without love?” It looks like
But that wisdom comes courtesy of a male friend who tries to hammer this idea into her head. Love remained elusive in Kit’s life. She married John William Macdonald only once in 1960 and divorced five years later. I’ll take the jaguar on the right side,” perhaps unsurprisingly.