White Mustang

Album: Lust For Life (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This smoky, piano-heavy tune finds Lana Del Rey falling for a lover after seeing his white Mustang

    The first Ford Mustang rolled off the show room floor on April 15, 1964, two days before it is set to go on sale nationwide. It was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A. Just under two years later, The Ford Motor Company celebrated the production of its one millionth Mustang, a white convertible, on March 2, 1966.

    The Mustang created the "pony car" class of American muscle cars, that is an affordable, compact, highly styled motor vehicle with a sporty or performance-oriented image. Its success gave rise to competitors such as the Chevrolet Camaro.
  • The Ford Mustang has frequently by namechecked by musicians, most prominently in the song "Mustang Sally", recorded by Wilson Pickett in 1966, about a girl who lives a wild life in her brand new Mustang car bought for her by her boyfriend. Other songs where the vehicle is sung about include:

    "Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)" by Donovan (I'll buy a Ford Mustang, I'll buy you a Ford Mustang I'll buy you a Ford Mustang. Just give me some of your love now, If you just give me some of your love, man).

    "The One That Got Away" by Katy Perry ("Summer after high school, when we first met. We make-out in your Mustang to Radiohead").

    "Sweet Thing" by Keith Urban ("Uncle Jake's Mustang, it's his favorite car").

    "John Wayne" by Lady Gaga ("Three am, Mustang speedin' Two lovers, headed for a dead end. Too fast, hold tight, he laughs. Runnin' through the red lights. Hollerin' over, rubber spinnin.'")

    "Whiskey Girl" by Toby Keith ("Baby got a '69 Mustang. Four on the floor, and you ought to hear the pipes ring").
  • The song's Rich Lee-directed music video tells the story of the end of a romance. We see Del Rey canoodling with her rock-star boyfriend before taking a ride alone around a futuristic Los Angeles in a white Mustang. Her love interest is portrayed by Icelandic actor/musician Eðvarð Egilsson. He told Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið's website mbl.is how his cameo in the dreamy, sultry clip came to be. "This is my largest role so far," Egilsson said. "A friend of mine tagged me in a post on Facebook ad asking for a certain type of guy, with long hair and a beard for a music video."

    "The next day when I was DJ'ing at a club I got a phonecall from Lana," Egilsson added. "She asked me to come to her home for a chat before taking on the project. So I did, we had a chat and she played some of her new music for me."
  • A white Mustang was also the featured car in Del Rey's music video for her 2011 single "Born To Die."

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