Songfacts®:

• Country singer Roger Miller wrote and performed this song for the 1973 Disney animated feature Robin Hood. The cast of talking animals includes Robin Hood the fox and his pal Little John the bear, along with Miller's Alan-a-Dale, a rooster who narrates the film.
• Robin Hood is a legendary hero of English folklore who steals from the rich and gives to the poor with the help of his Merry Men, including his lieutenant, Little John. The outlaws hide out in Sherwood Forest to evade capture by Prince John and his villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. Miller's song follows the pair's friendship and their bravery in the face of imminent danger:
  
  Robin Hood and Little John
  Runnin' through the forest
  Jumpin' fences, dodgin' trees
  An' tryin' to get away
  Contemplatin' nothin'
  But escape an' fin'lly makin' it
  Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
• Miller wrote and sang two other songs for the film: "Whistle-Stop" and "Not in Nottingham."
• Before he headed to Nashville to become a songwriter, Texas-born Miller grew up on an impoverished farm in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma during the Great Depression and joined the army to avoid jail time for stealing a guitar. He would be known for honky-tonk inspired novelty hits like "King Of The Road" and "Dang Me." By the time Robin Hood hit theaters in 1973, Miller had also released his 12th studio album, Dear Folks, Sorry I Haven't Written Lately (his first with Columbia Records).
• Miller tapped into his animal instincts, of the cartoon variety, again in 1978 when he voiced Speiltoe, the equine narrator, in Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey.
• This was featured in the 2015 Android TV commercial "Friends Furever." With the tagline "be together and not the same," the clip celebrates the strength of unlikely friendships, including an orangutan hanging out with a dog and a kitten nuzzling a baby chick.