Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally (1966) | Poal: Say what you want.

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This song was written by Bonny Rice, also known as Sir Mack Rice. Bonny started singing with a vocal group called the Five Scalders in 1955 and joined The Falcons in 1957.

This song was recorded at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. FAME had been operating since 1959 and had a big hit recording "When A Man Loves A Woman" for Percy Sledge. The Muscle Shoals musicians were building a reputation as some of the best in the business, and they caught the attention of Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records, which was Pickett's label. Wexler sent Pickett (a native of Prattville, Alabama) to record there, and the sessions produced this song and also his hit "Land Of 1,000 Dances." Wexler started sending more acts to Muscle Shoals, and in 1969, some of their top musicians, including guitarist Jimmy Johnson and drummer Roger Hawkins, left FAME and formed their own studio a few miles away, financed by Wexler. This became Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, where Paul Simon, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd The Rolling Stones, Cher and hundreds of other acts would record in the '70s.

Spooner Oldham, who is one of the top Muscle Shoals musicians and co-writer of the hits "I'm Your Puppet" (James and Bobby Purify) and "Cry Like a Baby" (The Box Tops), played the keyboard on this song. The keyboards are one of the most distinctive parts of the song, but they weren't on the demo - Spooner had to create the part so he could play on the record (and get paid). When we spoke with Oldham in 2011, he told us: "I was sitting on a stool, and we listened to a demo of Sir Mack Rice who wrote the song, and the first thing I noticed was there was no keyboard on that record. But I'm here, I want the job - what am I going to do that will work within that song? And I just closed eyes for a second, daydreaming, and said, 'I wonder what it would sound like if I pretended I was a Harley Davidson motorcycle and was driving through the studio, what would that sound like?' There's a little pause in that record where there's not much going on, and I do rorp-rorp-rorp kind of revving engine thing. And Jerry Wexler liked it, because he later tried to get me to do it again when I was in New York. Of course, I didn't, it was specific for that song."

After Pickett finished his final take at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the tape suddenly flew off the reel and broke into pieces. But the session engineer, the legendary Tom Dowd, calmly cleared the room and told everyone to come back in half an hour. Dowd pieced the tape back together and saved what became one of the funkiest soul anthems of the '60s."

This song was written by Bonny Rice, also known as Sir Mack Rice. Bonny started singing with a vocal group called the Five Scalders in 1955 and joined The Falcons in 1957. This song was recorded at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. FAME had been operating since 1959 and had a big hit recording "When A Man Loves A Woman" for Percy Sledge. The Muscle Shoals musicians were building a reputation as some of the best in the business, and they caught the attention of Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records, which was Pickett's label. Wexler sent Pickett (a native of Prattville, Alabama) to record there, and the sessions produced this song and also his hit "Land Of 1,000 Dances." Wexler started sending more acts to Muscle Shoals, and in 1969, some of their top musicians, including guitarist Jimmy Johnson and drummer Roger Hawkins, left FAME and formed their own studio a few miles away, financed by Wexler. This became Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, where Paul Simon, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd The Rolling Stones, Cher and hundreds of other acts would record in the '70s. Spooner Oldham, who is one of the top Muscle Shoals musicians and co-writer of the hits "I'm Your Puppet" (James and Bobby Purify) and "Cry Like a Baby" (The Box Tops), played the keyboard on this song. The keyboards are one of the most distinctive parts of the song, but they weren't on the demo - Spooner had to create the part so he could play on the record (and get paid). When we spoke with Oldham in 2011, he told us: "I was sitting on a stool, and we listened to a demo of Sir Mack Rice who wrote the song, and the first thing I noticed was there was no keyboard on that record. But I'm here, I want the job - what am I going to do that will work within that song? And I just closed eyes for a second, daydreaming, and said, 'I wonder what it would sound like if I pretended I was a Harley Davidson motorcycle and was driving through the studio, what would that sound like?' There's a little pause in that record where there's not much going on, and I do rorp-rorp-rorp kind of revving engine thing. And Jerry Wexler liked it, because he later tried to get me to do it again when I was in New York. Of course, I didn't, it was specific for that song." After Pickett finished his final take at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the tape suddenly flew off the reel and broke into pieces. But the session engineer, the legendary Tom Dowd, calmly cleared the room and told everyone to come back in half an hour. Dowd pieced the tape back together and saved what became one of the funkiest soul anthems of the '60s."

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