Detroit's Sir Mack Rice, 'Mustang Sally' writer, dead at 82Detroit soul stalwart Sir Mack Rice, who wrote “Mustang Sally,” “Respect Yourself” and other enduring R&B hits, died Monday in metro Detroit of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 82.
"He was the last one standing of those great R&B and blues guys of that time," said musician R.J. Spangler, who performed through the years with Rice. "A real bona fide guy."
A onetime member of the Detroit group the Falcons in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s — featuring longtime friend and future solo star Wilson Pickett — the Mississippi-born Rice went on to make his name primarily as a songwriter, funneling tunes to artists associated with Memphis’ Stax Records.
“Mustang Sally” was the best known among them: Originally called “Mustang Mama,” a title later tweaked at the urging of Aretha Franklin, the song was recorded by Rice and hit No. 15 on the R&B charts in 1965. A year later, Pickett’s cover version took off and became the song’s signature interpretation.
“Respect Yourself” became a hit for the Staple Singers in 1971 (and Bruce Willis in 1987), while other Rice tunes were picked up by artists such as Johnnie Taylor (“Cheaper to Keep Her”), Rufus Thomas (“Do the Funky Penguin Part 1”) and Albert King (“Cadillac Assembly Line”).
A long-forgotten 1964 composition, “Detroit, Michigan,” was covered by Kid Rock on the 2012 album “Rebel Soul,” and performed by Rock at halftime of that year’s nationally televised Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game.
"It was a tribute to Detroit's women," Rice told the Free Press at the time. "Our beautiful girls."
Born in the blues hotbed of Clarksdale, Miss., in November 1933, Rice was briefly mentored by Ike Turner as a teen.
"Ike was trying to teach me to play piano, but I wasn't interested," Rice told Memphis' Commercial Appeal newspaper in 2007.
Rice and his family moved to Detroit in 1950 and — following an Army stint in Germany — the aspiring singer linked up with the Falcons, a talent-loaded group featuring Pickett, Joe Stubbs and Eddie Floyd. With the Falcons' dissolution in the mid-'60s, Rice devoted his energy to songwriting and a solo singing career — earning his "Sir" honorific from fellow Detroit R&B figure Andre Williams.
His old Falcons connection with Pickett was his conduit to Stax, where he became a key figure on a Memphis label team that specialized in a brand of authentic Southern soul. Rice continued to live in Detroit, but kept a Memphis apartment for his Tennessee trips.
In later years, songwriting royalties and his asphalt company provided a comfortable lifestyle for Rice — he drove a Hummer and liked to dress in silk — but his itch to be onstage got him back on the blues and R&B circuit, where he was often backed by Detroit's Sun Messengers. Fred Reif, who handled much of Rice's concert booking in the '90s and '00s, said the musician stood out.
"He was a quite a gentleman — actually, one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met in the music business," said Reif. "Never complained about money or the gig or the hotel or anything. He was always happy."
He moved from Detroit to Bloomfield Hills in 2011, and his final gig came at the Chicago Blues Festival in 2013. Early symptoms of Alzheimer's had begun creeping in, Reif said, and Rice struggled to recall the lyrics as he sang "Mustang Sally."
"His wife, Laura (Rice) ran right out there, put her arm around him, and started singing with him," Reif recounted.
A memorial service will be held July 6 at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, with a funeral the following day.
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Sad news to read .... started out in the mighty
Falcons where R&B moved to soul .... thank you for ALL you gaveROCKMAN