Rick Derringer

Rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer Rick Derringer – born Richard Dean Zehringer in Celina Ohio on August 5, 1947 – was best known for his long career that included hits like 1964’s “Hang on Sloopy” (with his band The McCoys) and the 1973 solo single “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo.” He’s also well-known for replicating Eddie Van Halen’s “Beat It” solo on ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s 1984 parody hit “Eat It.” His musical journey began when he received a guitar for his ninth birthday, which led to him forming garage rock band The McCoys after his family relocated to Union City, Indiana after he finished eighth grade. The McCoys backed up fellow garage rockers The Strangeloves, who gifted them with a song called “My Girl Sloopy.” After changing the name of the song to “Hang on Sloopy,” it rose to the number 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped to define the garage rock sound in the US. When garage rock’s appeal began to fade, the members of The McCoys hooked up with Johnny Winter and backed him up. Rick Derringer would also play with Johnny’s brother Edgar in the bands Edgar Winter’s White Trash and The Edgar Winter Group. Rick Derringer released his solo debut album, All American Boy, in 1973, which included the Top 40 hit single “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” a song that he had previously recorded with Johnny Winter. While the album All American Boy was not a massive commercial success at the time, it remains his best-known album and personifies classic rock of the early 1970s. While he released over a dozen solo albums after All American Boy – including Spring Fever (1975), Guitars and Women (1979), Electra Blues (1994), and High City (2014) – he was unable to match the success of his debut as a solo artist. However, he managed to maintain a career as a musician and producer over the next four decades, working with the Winter brothers, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (as a producer and musician), Steely Dan, Ringo Starr, Cyndi Lauper, Barbra Streisand, Richie Havens, Dan Hartman, Kiss, Bonnie Tyler, Neil Sedaka, and many others. He also formed several other bands over the decades including his own group Derringer plus DNA (with Carmine Appice), Derringer Bogert & Appice (with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice), and The Derringers, a family band he formed after becoming a born-again Christian in the late 1990s. Rick Derringer underwent triple bypass heart surgery in March 2025 and died on May 26, 2025, at the age of 77.

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