Redhead

Album: If It Wasn't For You (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • Caylee Hammack enlisted fellow fire-haired singer Reba McEntire for this guitar-heavy duet. Co-written by Hammack with Natalie Hemby and Trent Dabbs, the song is an ode to wild red-haired children and the parents who do their best to raise them.
  • Living with the sunburn, running with scissors
    Daddy's belt couldn't help simmer down the temper
    Bull in a china shop, rose colored reckless
    Tried to run away, but trouble loves a little redhead


    "This song was inspired by an older cousin of mine with fiery red hair," shared Hammack. "You don't hear about redheads very much in songs, so I simply wanted to write one for her and all the redheads in my family. Then, Reba came in the studio and TRANSFORMED this song. She helped me create an anthem for all redheads. Whether you get it naturally or find it in a bottle, this is for the firecrackers!"
  • Directed by Justin Clough, the video is a literal take on the song lyrics as we see the red-headed girl's parents attempt to handle their daughter's fervor.
  • Red hair occurs naturally in just under 2% of the human population - approximately 140 million people. It occurs more frequently (2-6%) in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations. Here are a few more fun facts about redheads from Encyclopedia of Trivia:

    We call people with red hair "red heads" as opposed to "orange heads" because the phrase has been around longer than the color orange. The color orange was described as red up until the 1500s when the first reference of orange in the English language can be found.

    The highest concentration of redheads is in Scotland with 13%, followed by Ireland with 10%.

    Having red hair isn't the only thing that makes some redheads unique. According to science, they are also most likely to be left-handed because both characteristics (having red hair and being left-handed) come from recessive genes, which like to come in pairs.

    Each strand of red hair is generally thicker than other shades, which compensates for the fact that redheads have less hair. On average, flame-haired people have only have 90,000 strands of hair while blondes have 110,000 and brunettes 140,000.
  • When thinking of features for the record, Caylee Hammack threw a big wish out there about getting Reba McEntire for this song. After some toing and froing between managers, The Queen of Country's team emailed to say she was in.

    "She agreed to sing a bunch of the song and come in the studio with me," Hammack told Radio.com's Katie Neal of McEntire's contribution. "She is so sweet, but also this boss. She is everything as a woman I want to be. Such a strong business woman that you know not to mess with her. But also she's so warm and lighthearted that you know you can joke around with her and she'll give it right back to you. She's perfect!"
  • Lyrically, this song is a great example of contrast, a powerful songwriting technique. Andrea Stolpe, author of Popular Lyric Writing, explained on the Songfacts Podcast: "In Caylee Hammack's song 'Redhead,' the sensory language is just unreal. In songs like these, the contrast that comes out can sometimes be traced back to musical aspects, but lyrical aspects as well. In this case, 'redhead' is a visual image, but at some point there's going to be a statement or a thought that broadens the song, giving us the sense that the song has deeper meaning. So in this song you have the furniture:

    Mama was a hot head
    Daddy was a redneck
    Grew up in a single-wide when Reagan was president
    Spooning in a twin-size newlywed business


    And then we get the last line and here's that contrast:

    Didn't know they're going to have themselves a little redhead"

Comments: 1

  • Red from Utah"Run HER MOTHER dead."
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