Wilson Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” nearly became a casualty of the machine that recorded it. In 1966, at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Pickett and the session musicians recorded their version of a song written and first released by Mack Rice the previous year. Then came the playback—and a mechanical mishap that threatened to destroy the performance.
Keyboardist Spooner Oldham later recalled that the musicians had gathered in the control room when, during rewinding, part of the tape machine came loose and fragments of tape scattered across the room. As everyone bent down to collect them, Pickett exclaimed: “We ruined my master!”
Engineer Tom Dowd stayed calm. With roughly 30 or 40 small pieces of tape collected on the console, he told everyone to take a break for about half an hour. When they returned, Oldham recalled, Dowd had spliced the recording back together and played it for them.
Released in November 1966, Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” went on to become one of his signature recordings. Behind its gritty vocals and driving rhythm was an extraordinary repair job: a performance recovered, piece by piece, that still rattles rearview mirrors today.
