Was the song 'Ride Sally Ride' really dedicated to Sally Ride?

Answer 1

As one previous answer wrote, the appropriate answer here has nothing to do with Mustang Sally.

The song the asker is referring to is Ride Captain Ride, by Blood Sweat & Tears.

It goes "Ride, captain ride on your mystery ship, Be amazed at the friends you've got there on your trip."

It was edited in the 80's-- probably not by Blood Sweat & Tears-- to have the lyrics say "Ride Sally Ride."

They do sing about "ride sally ride" in Mustang Sally, but it is unlikely that's what the asker is referring to, because that's not the name of the song and the Blood Sweat & Tears version includes a spaceship.

Hi. Different answerer here. That above was the worst answer I've ever heard.

'Mustang Sally' is the song the original asker was referencing. It's often mistakenly called 'Ride Sally Ride'. No one would ever hear 'Ride Captain Ride' and think it was about Sally Ride. In fact, the original answerer is also under the foolish assumption that Blood, Sweat & Tears recorded 'Ride Captain Ride', when in fact it was Blues Image. If he really knew enough to answer this question he would have also told that both Dennis Coffey and Lou Reed had original songs in the 70s that were actually called 'Ride Sally Ride', but like 'Mustang Sally', these were too old to have been about Ms. Ride. 'Mustang Sally', however, had its choral hook "Ride, Sally, ride" often mentioned in news articles about the famous astronaut. Also, NASA used the chorus of 'Mustang Sally' as a musical alarm for waking Ms. Ride when she was in space.

Answer 2

Ride Sally Ride is not the title of a song, but is instead a portion of the chorus of the famous R&B tune, "Mustang Sally." Although it was originally recorded in 1965 the best known version was recorded in 1966 by the great blues singer, Wilson Pickett.

Even though the song was not about her, the former astronaut and educator, Dr. Ride (she holds a Ph.D in Physics) was probably ribbed about it a lot since she was right in the middle of her teenage years when it was released and had regular air play.

A couple bits of interesting trivia. Dr. Ride was the youngest women to enter space and served as a crew member on two Space Shuttle missions. During them she would be awakened each "morning" by Mission Control playing "Mustang Sally" and using it as her alarm clock.

Answer 3

Nope, 'Mustang Sally' was recorded in 1965 by Mack Rice. Sally Ride didn't become and astronaut until 1978. She was still a young teen when that song came out.

Duh.