Rick Derringer

Richard Dean Zehringer (August 5, 1947 – May 26, 2025), known professionally as Rick Derringer, was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He gained success in the 1960s with his band, the McCoys. Their debut single, "Hang On Sloopy", became a number-one hit in 1965 and is regarded as a classic track from the garage rock era. The McCoys had seven songs chart in the top 100, including covers of "Fever" and "Come On, Let's Go". After releasing All American Boy, Derringer established a career as a solo artist.

In 1973, Derringer found further success with his song "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo". He worked extensively with brothers Edgar and Johnny Winter, playing lead and rhythm guitar in their bands and producing all of their gold and platinum records, including Edgar Winter's hits "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride" (both in 1973). He collaborated with Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper, and "Weird Al" Yankovic, producing Yankovic's Grammy Award-winning songs "Eat It" (1984) and "Fat" (1988). He produced the World Wrestling Federation's album The Wrestling Album (1985) and its follow-up, Piledriver: The Wrestling Album II (1987). Those albums featured Hulk Hogan's entrance song, "Real American”, initially the theme song of the tag team U.S. Express; and the Demolition tag team's theme, "Demolition." Derringer produced three songs on the soundtrack of the 1984 Tom Hanks film Bachelor Party.

Derringer was born in Celina, Ohio, on August 5, 1947, and grew up in Fort Recovery, Ohio. He was the son of John Otto Zehringer and Janice Lavine (Thornburg) Zehringer. His father was a section foreman on the Nickel Plate Railroad. According to Derringer, aside from his parents' extensive record collection, his first major influence was his uncle Jim Thornburg, who was a popular guitarist and singer in Ohio. Derringer recalled hearing him play guitar in the kitchen of his parents' home and knowing immediately that he wanted to learn the instrument. He was eight years old at the time, and his parents gave him his first electric guitar for his ninth birthday. Soon after, he and his brother Randy began playing music together, inspired by the "British invasion" of the Beatles and other UK bands in the early 1960s. After he finished the eighth grade, the family moved to Union City, Indiana, where Derringer formed a band he called the McCoys. He renamed the band the Rick Z Combo and then Rick and the Raiders before reverting to the original name.

In the summer of 1965, before Derringer turned 18, the McCoys were hired to back a New York-based band called the Strangeloves in concert. The Strangeloves, record producers from New York City, were looking for a band to record the song "My Girl Sloopy", written by Wes Farrell and Bert Berns, and chose the McCoys. Derringer persuaded the producers to change the title to "Hang On Sloopy". The Strangeloves recorded the guitar and instrumental parts and the McCoys were brought into the studio to sing on the recording, which was released under their name in 1965 and reached number one on the Hot 100. Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" fell from number one to number two; The Beatles' "Yesterday" zoomed from number 45 to number three. "Hang On Sloopy" became an anthem for Derringer's home state of Ohio, especially at Ohio State Buckeyes football games, where fans chant "O-H-I-O" during the song's chorus. It is also a staple at Cleveland Guardians home games at Progressive Field and plays at the end of every tour at Ohio Caverns.

Along with musicians, Elliott Randall, Marty Kupersmith, Harvey Brooks, Paul Harris, and Billy Williams, Derringer played on Eric Mercury's 1969 Electric Black Man album.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.