How Could Little Red Riding Hood

HOW COULD LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD HAVE BEEN SO VERY GOOD

by A. P. Randolph
as sung by Tom Stacks, and the Yacht Club Boys


When we were young, but old enough for us to understand
We all believed in fairies, and the folks in fairy land.
But the modern child is runnin' wild
He wants to know too much
He's never understood
About Red Riding Hood.

How could Little Red Riding Hood
Have been so very good
And still keep the wolf from the door?
Job? Father? Mother? No! She had none.
So where in the world did the money come from?
I need to ask it:
Who filled her basket?
The story books never tell.
They say that she found a wolf in Granny's bed
With a great big sun bonnet pulled over his head,
But sometimes I wonder what she found instead.
How could Little Red Riding Hood
Have been so very very good
And still kept the wolf from the door?

How could Red Riding Hood
Have been so very good
And still keep the wolf from the door?
Why was she dressed up in her bright flaming red,
Unless she expected to knock someone dead?
Why did she ramble?
She knew it was a gamble.
She was out in the woods for no good.
They say she was a maid most discrete;
And there's no doubt about it, she must have been sweet.
But you know and I know that even sweet girls must eat.
How could Little Red Riding Hood
Have been so very good 
And still keep the wolf from the door?


I ask you, How could Little Red Riding Hood
Have been so very good
And still keep the wolf from the door?
I've heard of many strange things in New York,
But who ever heard of a wolf that could talk?
I hate to doubt it,
But there's something about it
That sounds mighty funny to me.
I don't believe that any one of those fairy tales is true.
You don't?
          No, I don't believe 'em. D'you believe 'em?
 I believe all fairy tales.
                            Then I'd like to ask you:
Who was the father of all the little children of the woman that
lived in the shoe?
                   Jack the giant killer!
Say, How could Little Red Riding Hood
Have been so very good
And still keep the wolf from the door?

Note: American "78" record labels often had Spanish translations of their titles beneath the English title. This was designed to increase record marketability in Latin America. On one record of this song, the "translation" is given as "Como Puede Hood El Colorado Montar". Translated back into English, this would mean "How could it hood the red-colored to ride", except for the untranslated word "hood", which is meaningless in Spanish. This is a good example of the hazards of trying to translate with a bi-lingual dictionary when one has no knowledge of the foreign language's grammar.

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