Uses in Popular Culture
The first verse is sung by Porky Pig, in the character of Friar Tuck, in the 1958 Warner Bros. cartoon Robin Hood Daffy. Much of the song is sung in the 1951 film classic Scrooge, starring Alastair Sim. It is also sung in the 1940 movie, Tom Brown's School Days. It is heard again in the 1958 Yul Brynner film, The Buccaneer, and in an episode of the 1989–91 TV series Bordertown. It is also sung in the TV show, The Waltons in an episode entitled "The Conflict." In the 2000 mockumentary Best in Show, Michael McKean's character sings a verse of this song to his dog over the phone, saying it is the dog's favorite song. John Travolta does a short rendition of the song in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004), included on the soundtrack. The song is sung in various versions in the 2000 film Songcatcher. It is also sung by the character, Flora in Jane Campion's The Piano (1993).
The line, 'there was a fair maid dwelling,' was used as the title of a novel by R.F. Delderfield in 1960. The stage play Dark of the Moon (1942), by Howard Richardson and William Berney, is based on the ballad, as a reference to the influence of English, Irish and Scottish folktales and songs in the Appalachian region. The name of the female lead is Barbara Allen.
"'For the Love of Barbara Allen'" is the title of a short story by Robert E. Howard in which an old dying woman is reunited with the youthful reincarnation of her lost love, killed in the Civil War. The song's lyrics are quoted at the beginning and end of the tale, and the ballad itself is cited as a fixture in the lives of the Scotch-Irish pioneers.
The radio series Suspense did a dramatic interpretation of the ballad on October 20, 1952 entitled "The Death of Barbara Allen" with Anne Baxter in the title role.
The Ballad of Barbara Allen is one of the recurring themes in the comic strip Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron which appeared in Daniel Clowes' Eightball (issues 1-10). In dream sequences and in a film within the story a bearded folk singer sings various lines from the song.
The song provided the inspiration for a British radio play called Barbara Allen in which the title role was played by Honeysuckle Weeks and Keith Barron played Sir John Grove, the father of Jemmye Grove. The play was written by David Pownall and initially broadcast on BBC Radio 7 on February 16, 2009.
Vincent Woods' 1992 play about the Irish-British Troubles, At the Black Pig's Dyke, uses the song at key moments to comment on the action and relations depicted in the drama.
The song is referenced in Scott Miller's song, "Dear Sarah," in which a Civil War soldier is writing home to his love. The lyrics of the chorus are "And the nights are long, but I write you ev'ry day. And I hum a song that you used to sing. The one of sweet William his love, Barbara Allen And how she was always a long ways away." The ending goes, "In Scarlet Town, I did dwell. There was a fair maid a-dwellin'. Many men cried, well, for the love Barbara Allen"
Read more about this topic: Barbara Allen (song)
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