We’re posting lyrics of hit songs so that our songwriters can study them to see how winning songs are constructed. Of course a lot depends on the melody, the rhythm and the artist as to whether or not the song will sell… and whether or not it is in the right place at the right time!
So this week’s Featured Lyrics are from songwriter Mack Rice and were made most famous by Wilson Pickett.
“Mustang Sally” is a rhythm and blues (R&B) song written and first recorded by Mack Rice in 1965. It was released on the Blue Rock label (4014) in May 1965 with “Sir Mack Rice” as the artist. The song uses an AAB layout with a 24-bar structure.
It gained greater popularity when Wilson Pickett covered it the following year on a single, a version that was also released on the 1966 album, The Wicked Pickett. Also in 1966, John Lee Hooker recorded an entirely different song with a similar title — “Mustang Sally & GTO”.
According to music historian Tom Shannon the song started as a joke when singer Della Reese wanted a new Ford Mustang. Rice called the early version “Mustang Mama” but changed the title after Aretha Franklin suggested “Mustang Sally”.
On The Rascals Anthology booklet, Felix Cavaliere claims The Young Rascals actually recorded “Mustang Sally” and “Land of a Thousand Dances” before Pickett. He says Atlantic Records “copped those two songs from them and gave them to Pickett” to record.
Rice’s version made it to #15 on the U.S. R&B charts in 1965. Pickett’s version climbed to #6 on the R&B charts and #23 on the Pop charts in 1966, #4 in Canada on the (RPM) charts, and #28 in the UK Singles Chart on its original release and #62, when it was released again in 1987.
In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Wilson Pickett’s recording of the song at #434 on a list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song dropped seven spots to #441, when the magazine published its 2010 update of the list.
The Young Rascals covered the song in 1966, changing the year of the “brand new Mustang” from 1965 to 1966.
The chorus of the song includes the lyrics “ride, Sally, ride” — a phrase that became fodder for newspaper headlines in 1983, when astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. The Lou Reed song “Ride Sally Ride”, which quotes these lyrics throughout, is the first track on his 1974 album Sally Can’t Dance. The same lyric is found in “Dance to the Music” by Sly and the Family Stone in 1968 and in the children’s song “Sally the Camel”.
The song featured prominently in the 1991 film The Commitments and appears on the film’s soundtrack album, sung by Andrew Strong. It was released as a single from the album and reached #63 in the UK Singles Chart, #43 on the Australian charts and #17 on the New Zealand charts. Also in 1991 Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy teamed with English guitarist Jeff Beck for a version of the song on Guy’s album “Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues”.
As the song primarily mentions the car, it became synonymous with the Ford Mustang.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang_Sally_(song)
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Mustang Sally by Mack Rice
Mustang Sally
Guess you better slow that Mustang down
Mustang Sally, now baby
Guess you better slow that Mustang down
You’ve been running all over town
Ooh, I guess you gotta put your flat feet on the ground
Spoken: “Sing it to me one more time girls.”
-Chorus-
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride]
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride]
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride]
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride]
Tell you, one of these early mornings
I’m gonna be wiping those weepin’ eyes, yeah
I brought you a brand new Mustang [ride]
It was a nineteen sixty five
Now you comin’ around to signify a woman
Girl, you won’t, you won’t let me ride
Mustang Sally, now baby [Sally, now baby]
Guess you better slow that Mustang down [down], alright
You’ve been running all over town
Oh, I guess you gotta put your flat feet on the ground
Spoken: “Oh yeah, baby, you gotta put your flat feet”
-Chorus-
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride]
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride]
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride], ah yeah
All you wanna do is ride around Sally [Ride, Sally, ride]
One of these early mornings
I’m gonna be wiping those weepin’ eyes, yeah
Spoken: “Oh yeah, baby, come on, boys”
Those weepin’ eyes, oh yeah, those weepin’ eyes
Those weepin’ eyes, yeah, yeah, yeah, those weepin’ eyes
Those weepin’ eyes
Oh, those weepin’ eyes
yeah, yeah, yeah, hey yeah.
Songwriter: Bonny “Mack” Rice
© Fourteenth Hour Music, Inc., Springtime Music, Inc.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=lyrics+mustang+sally&pc=MOZI&form=MOZSPG