What 1947 song written by Frank Loesser asks, “What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?”

Frank Loesser wrote the 1947 song “What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?”

The song is a romantic standard built around a question about plans for the coming New Year. Rather than describing a public countdown, its lyrics imagine whether two people will spend a series of holidays together, ending with New Year’s Eve. That reflective structure helped it become a recurring seasonal recording.

Loesser wrote both the music and lyrics. He was also known for songs including “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and “Luck Be a Lady,” and for composing the score of the musical Guys and Dolls.

Many singers have recorded the song, so its title is sometimes mistaken for a generic name such as “The New Year’s Song.” Its exact title includes the full question and ends with a question mark, a detail that distinguishes it from similarly themed holiday songs.