Wilson Pickett – Mustang Sally

Motown and Stax were vital to the 1960s and 70s. This is just my opinion… but Motown had more hits but Stax had an edge that was hard to beat. I always thought their music had more of a groove to it.

This is a song that our band never officially learned…it’s one of those songs where if you have played for a few years…you just know by instinct. We did this one from a request and also Midnight Hour we would play loud and intense.

The music is in groove mode, but Pickett’s explosive voice drives it home. Mustang Sally was recorded at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The studio had a unique sound plus some of the best musicians anywhere. It started to get the attention of Atlantic Records and they sent Pickett to record there. Later on, a guitar player known as Duane Allman would end up as a studio musician and talked Pickett into recording Hey Jude.

As soon as they finished this take… the tape flew off the reel and broke into pieces everywhere. Producer Tom Dowd cleared the room and told everyone to return in half an hour. Dowd pieced the tape back together and saved what became one of the coolest songs of the decade.

It was written by Mark Rice. In 1950, he moved with his family to Detroit, where he graduated from high school. After he served in the Army, he joined a group called The Falcons. He soon began singing with the Falcons, whose other members included Wilson Pickett, Joe Stubbs, and Eddie Floyd. But he would find real fame as a songwriter.

“Mustang Sally” began as “Mustang Mama,” which he was inspired to write by the newly introduced Ford Mustang sports car. It was Aretha Franklin, the pianist on Rice’s demo of the song, who persuaded him to rename it.

He recorded “Mustang Sally” as Sir Mack Rice in 1965, and it peaked at #15 on the Billboard R&B chart. Rice did a nice job but the song needed Wilson Pickett’s powerful voice.

Pickett’s version peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100, #6 on the R&B Charts, #28 in the UK, and #4 in Canada.

Mustang Sally

Mustang Sally, huh, huh, guess you better slow your Mustang down
Oh Lord, what I said now?
Mustang Sally, now baby, oh Lord, guess you better slow your Mustang down
Huh oh yeaah
You been running all over the town now
Oh! I guess I’ll have to put your flat feet on the ground
Huh, what I said now?

Listen
All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride
All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride
All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride. Huh
All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride

One of these early mornings, baby, you gonna be wiping your weeping eyes
Huh, what I said now?

Look it here.
I bought you a brand new mustang nineteen sixty five. Huh
Now you come around signifying a woman, you don’t wanna let me ride
Mustang Sally, now baby, oh Lord, guess you better slow that mustang down
Huh, oh Lord. Look here
You been running all over the town
Oh! I got to put your flat feet on the ground. Huh, What I said now?

Let me say it one more time ya’ll
All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride
All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

33 thoughts on “Wilson Pickett – Mustang Sally”

  1. Such a great song! Once again just when I think I know something about a cover song along comes Max! Did not know Aretha Franklin influenced the name nor that she was on that demo, I’m not sure she gets enough credit for her piano playing. Also the story about the tape flying off is new to me. Cool you played some Pickett with your band. Can’t help but think of The Commitments when I hear this.

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    1. It was a lot of fun to play….especially Midnight Hour…that was one of the top ones with power. I hope I didn’t come off as me not liking Motown…I just reread it…I do like Motown but there seems to be a little more polish in Motown than Stax….could be me.
      The Aretha thing surprised me also…along with Tom Dowd’s story.

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    1. That is cool. My first car in 1983 when I was 16 was a 1966 Mustang…that was dumb of my mom to give me that car for my first car…but they weren’t “classic” yet…just an old car…a 1000 bucks.

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  3. In the Irish movie, “The Commitments,” the band tears this one up. Every band in the 60s darn well better have had this one in the ammo box, or get sent packing. Such a tremendous talent gone too soon. My wife MoMo drove a 65 Mustang in high school ( 1969-70) and she shut most of the hot shots down with her 289 4 speed. Yep, back then we used to drag race out in the country, everybody had a muscle car and a 8 track tape player, air conditioning was unheard of, it took to much power from the engine. Fast cars and Wilson Pickett, sort of goes well together.

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    1. My first car was a 66 Mustang in 1983 when I turned 16… I had no business with that car as my first… but it was just an old car then…like I told someone else…not classic yet.
      Oh a 289 4 speed…I can’t imagine…mine was a puny automatic I think switched from a Maverick.
      This song…you just knew…start playing a G I believe and go from there…or an A…you can find it by just going.

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      1. you’re right about Stax sound vs Motown. Now personally, I like the smoother pop of Motown a wee bit more overall but both turned out huge numbers of excellent records. And then together, they led to the Philadelphia sound of ’70s.

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      2. I think it’s just a preference…and artist….Smokey Robinson…yes he was meant for that smooth sound….but the Temptations kinda got into that sound with their early seventies stuff…a little more raw and hot.

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  5. What a story about the tape of the Muscle Shoals recording. It’s amazing it could be restored.

    This song makes me think of the movie Miss Congeniality. I think they used a recording made specifically for the movie, but it’s close to Wilson Pickett’s version.

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    1. Oh I love this one…brings back great memories. This one and Midnight Hour is tied together…it’s so powerful. Other people are saying the movie “The Commitments”….it’s probably been in many.

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  6. Great classic, Max. In 1965, Rice wrote a song called ‘Mustang Mama’ after visiting his friend, the actress/singer Della Reese, in New York City. Reese told him that she was thinking about buying her drummer Calvin Shields a new Lincoln for his birthday, which Rice, being from Detroit, thought that getting someone a car was a great idea. During a drive with Shields, while they were smokin’ some weed, Shields started talking about the Mustang car and Rice let it slip out that he might be getting a new Lincoln for his birthday and the drummer replied, “I don’t want a Lincoln, I want a Mustang.” Rice said that he had never heard of a Mustang before, but Shields filled him in that it had just come out about a month ago. They went for a drive and saw a billboard for a Mustang and Shields said, “Look up there, man, on that billboard sign.” Rice said, “Oh shit, man, that car there? No no no, it’s too little for me! In Detroit we’re used to driving big cars man, that little shit? What are you gonna do with it, you gonna ride in it by yourself?” Shields kept talking about how much he loved the Mustang and Rice couldn’t believe that Shields wanted such a small car instead of a big ol’ Lincoln. When he returned to Detroit, Rice decided to write a song about Ford’s new compact titled ‘Mustang Mama’, a tale of a fast car and love gone wrong which was based on a nursery rhyme that Rice had heard as a child growing up in Mississippi “Little Sally Walker”.
    In 1983, 32 years old Sally Ride became the first American woman – and also the youngest – to fly to space alongside four other crew members. When she launched into space, many people were cheering and singing “Ride Sally Ride”.

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    1. LOL…I just mentioned that in the last one! It is aggressive and in your face so I can see this one being popular.

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  8. Easily one of my all-time songs coming out of Stax. Incredibly, I only learned about this gem in 1991 when I watched the musical comedy picture The Commitments, which featured amazing soul music, including a fantastic cover of “Mustang Sally”!

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    1. Christian….no one has commented but do you agree with me about Motown and Stax? No big deal if you don’t….but it seems like Motown…who I love…had more polish on their songs than Stax did…and Stax seemed to form their songs on a groove.
      It’s a great song….
      That is a really good verison of that! I’ve never seen that movie.

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      1. Oh 100%. Motown is what got me into soul music initially, but once I discovered Stax, the music that came out of this label quickly became my preference. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Motown sound as well, but their songs can come across as bit formularic.

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      2. Thank you…ok I thought it was just me. One of their studios was an old cinema with a slope…they said they were never able to replicate that sound they got in that studio. Ok…I just verified it: “With its studio in a converted Capitol movie theater”

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    1. It’s a great driving beat… I remember the dance floor full when we played this one…
      Off topic…Bailey and I are going to see a movie at the theater in an hour or so….1973 movie…The Exorcist…I can’t wait.

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      1. I bet they did, Max. I know I got up and out there when it played. I’m sure you have seen that movie before today?? Not one I care to see again. I read the book first as a teenager and was scared out of my wits (never went near a Ouija board again either!) Later I went to see the movie. Nice to spend time together with Bailey.

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      2. Yes I saw it in a theater in 2000…I’ve watched it on VHS first and then on DVDs…this probably was around the 6th time I’ve seen it. I think it’s a great drama with horror thrown in…really good movie.

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      2. LOL…she never disappoints. I was telling Lisa…this was about the 6th time I’ve seen it…and the second time on the big screen…the first time in 2000. It’s a great movie with some horror in it.

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