I have a three wire receptacle (red, black and white) that was hooked to a ceiling fan. The new light is two wire (black and white). Hooking the black and white wires and capping the red gave power to the light, but the switch would not turn off the light. What is the correct hook up?

Is there only one switch involved with that setup? Sounds like you might have a traveler involved from a three way switch? And when you say receptacle does this thing plug up?