Ford’s 1964-1/2 Mustang: Best there ever was?

Was there a real “Mustang Sally?” The song was written as a whim by Mack Rice in Detroit, Mich., in 1965. It’s a classic story about an iconic American automobile.

Motown singer Della Reese told Rice she was considering buying a lavish gift (a Lincoln Continental automobile) for her drummer and band leader Calvin Shields as a 41st birthday gift.

Shields got wind of the plan and expressed his sincere gratitude…but let it be known that he would rather have a new Ford Mustang.

Rice said he hadn’t heard about the Mustang, but decided there might be a song in the situation. An early version (about a fictional woman who doesn’t want to do anything but ride around in her new car) was tagged “Mustang Mama.”

Rice played the tune for Aretha Franklin, who was renowned as the “Queen of Soul.” She suggested the song be retitled as “Mustang Sally,” because Rice used the name Sally in the chorus.

Mustang Sally, think you better slow your mustang down.

You been running all over the town now.

Oh! I guess I’ll have to put your flat feet on the ground.

Rice’s version of “Mustang Sally” was moderately successful in 1965. He later handed off the tune to vocalist Wilson Pickett, whose version was a giant hit in 1966.

The Ford Motor Company’s introduction of the Mustang is “the most successful new car debut in history, according to George Mattar, a former editor at Hemmings Motor News, a monthly magazine based in Bennington, Vt.

Lee Iacocca is regarded as the “father of the Mustang,” and the public wanted this car, Mattar said. Original owners claim to be charter members the “1964-1/2 Ford Mustang club,” because the first models – both hardtops and convertibles – made their debut on April 17, 1964. Within the first week, 22,000 orders for Mustangs were registered.

A great story surfaced just a few months ago, when the car salesman – Harry (Herk) Phillips – who sold the first Mustang (albeit prematurely) 55 years ago in 1964, was “reunited” with the “Wimbledon white” Mustang convertible, bearing Serial Number 001, at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Mich.

Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press reported that the very first “showroom display model” Mustang was shipped to the George Parsons Ford dealership in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.

Phelan explained: “It took longer to get to St. John’s from Ford’s River Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn than to any other dealership (a distance of 2,180 miles), and Ford wanted every dealership to have a display model when sales began April 17, 1964.”

“Ford wanted all the models to be shipped back to Dearborn,” Phelan said. “That memo didn’t get to Phillips at the Parsons dealership. He sold the car three days early to Capt. Stanley Tucker, of Gander, Newfoundland. Tucker was a 33-year-old commercial pilot with Eastern Provincial Airlines, which became part of Air Canada.

Phelan reported: Dagnabbit, “it was months before anybody at Ford headquarters knew Mustang No. 001 had jumped the corral and was running free.”

“The serial number didn’t mean anything to us,” Phillips said. “We didn’t know it was the first one made. We didn’t realize the significance of the car till Ford came looking for it.”

Amanda Jackson of CNN said it took the Ford Motor Company “two years of negotiating with Tucker to get the vehicle back. In exchange for the first Mustang built, Ford gave him the one-millionth Mustang – a 1966 model with all the bells and whistles.”

Phillips spent a career selling Ford vehicles, retiring from the dealership in 1995. He sold tons of cars during his time there, but none was more special than 001.

A driving force behind the effort to raise enough money to finance a trip for Phillips to go to Dearborn was NLMustangs, an online community of Newfoundland and Labrador Mustang owners and enthusiasts. To complement the effort, Phillips’ granddaughter, Stephanie Mealey, launched a social media fundraising campaign. She called it “Send Harry to Henry,” a playful reference to the museum.

The campaign was successful, so Henry Phillips, now 84, and Stephanie Mealey made the trip at the end of September. They were warmly welcomed and received the VIP tour. When the curator invited Phillips to sit behind the wheel of 001 for the cameras, he spryly hopped in and beamed with joy.