DETROIT — Mack Rice, the composer of ‘60s hit ‘‘Mustang Sally’’ and co-writer of the Staple Singers’ landmark ‘‘Respect Yourself,’’ has died in Detroit. He was 82.
Laura Rice said her husband died at their home Monday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
‘‘Sir’’ Mack Rice was best known for writing ‘‘Mustang Sally,’’ which he initially recorded but singer Wilson Pickett popularized. They had been in a group together called the Falcons, which recorded in Detroit.
‘‘When he wrote ‘Mustang Sally’ and he saw that royalty check, he started writing,’’ Laura Rice said. ‘‘He never thought ‘Mustang Sally’ would ever be as big as it became. . . . He used to tell me, ‘Honey, that Mustang has rolled a long time.’ ’’
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He was born Bonny Rice in Clarksdale, Miss., on Nov. 10, 1933, to Robert McIlvaine and Irene Williamson. (Rice was his mother’s original last name.)
Ike Turner, who was two years older, was a boyhood mentor.
“Ike was trying to teach me to play piano, but I wasn’t interested,” Mr. Rice recalled in an interview with The Commercial Appeal of Memphis in 2007.
He moved to Detroit as a teen and split his adulthood between the Motor City and Memphis, where he eventually became a songwriter for Stax Records.
He wrote ‘‘Respect Yourself’’ with late R&B singer-songwriter Luther Ingram for the Staple Singers, which became Stax’s biggest hit.
Mr. Rice’s wife said he wrote it in about 15 minutes after talking with other musicians in the studio about the need for people to respect themselves in order to be respected by others.
Laura Rice and singer Pat Lewis, a longtime friend and collaborator, say he was kind, humble, and embodied his other, Memphis-given nickname, ‘‘Gentleman.’’
Both delivered the word in a drawn-out, southern accent, sounding more like ‘‘Gentlemain.’’
Lewis, a fellow Detroit resident who went to Stax with Mr. Rice in the 1960s and remained close with him until his death, said he was a ‘‘gentle soul’’ who was loved by all — including ex-bandmates. She said he remained friends with Pickett, who died in 2006, and the other Falcons, even though for a lot of groups, ‘‘when they fall out, they fall out.’’
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“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 Mr. Rice’s demo of the song, who persuaded him to rename it.
He recorded “Mustang Sally” as Sir Mack Rice in 1965 (he was knighted by the record’s producer, Andre Williams), and it reached No. 15 on the Billboard R&B chart.
‘‘Pickett called [Mr. Rice] and said, ‘You oughtta let me do ‘Mustang Sally.’ ’’ recalled Lewis, who also sang backup for Franklin and Isaac Hayes. ‘‘Mack said, ‘You wanna do it? You got that.’
“It wasn’t a hit [for] Mack but Pickett, wow, he just blew it out of the park.’’
Pickett’s recording of the song, with its “Ride, Sally, ride” chorus, became a phenomenon.
The song was ranked No. 434 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” published in 2004, and covered by the Rascals and many others.
In his later years, Mr. Rice ran an asphalt company in Detroit and continued writing and performing. Despite his failing health and mind at the end of his life, Lewis said music remained at his core. She recalled their last phone conversation a few days before his death.
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‘‘Somebody mentioned my name and he hadn’t spoken all day, but all of a sudden he said, ‘Patsy Lewis? Where?’ ’’ Lewis said. ‘‘He said to me, ‘Patsy Lewis, hello darling. Girl, we gotta get this music.’ I said, ‘You are so right, Gentleman.’ ’’
A tribute service has been scheduled for July 6 at Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church. A funeral service is set for July 7.
Material from The New York Times was used in this obituary.