Multiple Versions of the Song "Lil' Red Riding Hood" (and a Volvo Commercial!)

Posted by on
Welcome to A Week of Little Red in celebration of our favorite scarlet-caped heroine...
not to mention the launch of Marissa Meyer's SCARLET!
Check out my daily schedule of events!
Grab some promotional buttons for your blog
and stop back all week long for fun guest posts, exciting author visits, giveaways, reviews,
and blog tour stops for SCARLET!

When Macmillan mentioned that Volvo's S60 R-Design "Little Red" commercial was once again circulating, I HAD to watch it.

And then, of course, I wanted to know more about the song!

There are a ton of great covers, too, and I've rounded up a few to share with you today!

According to Wikipedia, this is the meaning behind the 1966 Billboard Chart #2 Hit Song "Li'l Red Riding Hood" (also known as "Little Red Riding Hood") by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs:

The song is built around Charles Perrault's fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood," adapted by ending before the grandmother makes her entrance, and explicitly using the ambiguity of modern English between "wolf", the carnivore, and "wolf", a man with concealed sexual intentions. The effect, whether intentional or incidental, is to strip away the fairy tale's metaphorical device and present the relationship between the two characters without literary pretense. 

 The singer remarks on "what big eyes" and "what full lips" Red has, and eventually on "what a big heart" he himself has. An added element is that he says (presumably aside, to the song's audience) that he is disguised in a "sheep suit" until he can demonstrate his good intentions, but he seems to be having a hard time suppressing his wolf call in the form of a howl, in favor of the baa-ing of a sheep, at the very end of the song when Sam repeats the word "BAAHED" a few times during the song's fade. One of its signature lines is "you're ev'rything that a big bad wolf could want".

Have you already seen the Volvo commercial that started my song quest?


Here's the 1966 version of the song that started it all:


Here's a full-length version of the cover by Laura Gibson,
as heard in the Volvo commercial:


Actress Amanda Seyfried (Les Misérables, Red Riding Hood, Mamma Mia!, Dear John)
also covered the song when promoting her movie Red Riding Hood:


Here's a really fun animated video featuring a cover from Bowling for Soup:

YouTube Link

Which version is your favorite?

Video-wise, I love watching the Bowling for Soup video
because it's just so much fun.  Absolutely adorable!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for taking the time to stop and comment! I appreciate it more than I can say. I try to respond to each one!