Product Code Database
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 Winter 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 WWE's album The Wrestling Album (1985) and its follow-up, (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.
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. Steely Dan FAQ, All That's Left to Know About This Elusive Band, By Anthony Robustelli · 2017 - - Page 33 Eric MercuryAllMusic - Electric Black Man, Eric Mercury, Credits
In 1973, Derringer released his first solo album, All American Boy, which featured his hit song "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo". The song had already appeared on the albums Johnny Winter And (1970) and Roadwork (1972). Derringer's version reached the Top 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming his highest-charting single, but despite the single's success the album, All American Boy, was not commercially successful. One critic called it a "sadly neglected album of great merit".
Derringer's later albums, both solo and with his band Derringer, included 1977's Sweet Evil, co-written with Cynthia Weil and Rolling Thunder Revue author Larry Sloman.
He released the critically acclaimed album Guitars and Women in 1979, which was re-released with liner notes by Razor & Tie in 1998. He played guitar on two Steely Dan tracks, "Show Biz Kids" on Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) and "Chain Lightning" on Katy Lied (1975), and is credited with having helped Donald Fagen to secure a record deal in 1972. Derringer collaborated with his neighbor Todd Rundgren, playing on four of Rundgren's solo albums. He was a regular in Andy Warhol's circle and frequently visited Warhol's studio, The Factory.
In 1983, Derringer wrote "Shake Me" for his Good Dirty Fun solo album, accompanied by a video produced by Jake Hooker, the husband of Lorna Luft. Singer Lourett Russell Grant appeared in the video alongside Derringer. In 1984, Derringer played guitar on Barbra Streisand's cover of Steinman's "Left in the Dark", released as the lead single from her album Emotion. In 1985, Derringer's friendship with Cyndi Lauper led him and Steinman to collaborate again, with Derringer producing The Wrestling Album (1985) for the WWE, consisting mostly of wrestlers' theme songs. He wrote several songs for the album, including "Real American", co-written with Bernard Kenny. The song was originally used as the theme song for U.S. Express (Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda), but became Hulk Hogan's theme song after Windham left the World Wrestling Federation in 1985. The song was used by US President Barack Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner, where he played it while unveiling his birth certificate.
It was used as a campaign song by Hillary Clinton, as a victory song by Newt Gingrich, and in four videos during the campaign of Donald Trump.
In 1986, Derringer worked with Meat Loaf again on Blind Before I Stop, co-writing the song "Masculine". He played guitar on two songs on Cyndi Lauper's album True Colors, "Calm Inside the Storm" and "The Faraway Nearby". From 1986 to 1992, he served as a guitarist on Lauper's tours and commented that Lauper was "better live" than Barbra Streisand. He played with Lauper again on her third album, A Night to Remember, which was released in 1989.
In 1987, Meat Loaf appeared on Way Off Broadway, a nationally distributed cable TV show with Derringer as the music director. The show was hosted by Joy Behar. Other guests on the show included Larry Carlton, Robbie Dupree, and Edgar Winter.
Derringer returned to the World Wrestling Federation in 1987 to produce a second music album, . He co-wrote the theme song for Demolition and recorded a new version of "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" as a duet with Gene Okerlund.
In the 1980s, he produced the Kodomo Band and toured in Asia, including with Edgar Winter, during the 1990 White Light tour, and worked for several New York City-based jingle houses. Derringer produced "Weird Al" Yankovic's debut album, "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983). Between 1983 and 1989, he produced six Yankovic albums, for which he received his only Grammy Award. Yankovic expressed openness to the idea of working with Derringer again.
In 1997, Derringer became an Evangelicalism. Thereafter, he consistently aligned himself with conservative causes in the United States.
He described himself as a "Jesus freak" and recorded albums of Christian songs with his third wife, Jenda.
In 2001, Derringer, his wife and their children released the first two of four Christian music albums through Panda Studio Productions: Aiming 4 Heaven (2001), Derringer X 2 (2001), the holiday album Winter Wonderland (2004), and We Live (2008). In 2002, Derringer was featured in Dan Muise's book Gallagher, Marriott, Derringer & Trower – Their Lives and Music. (2026). 9780634029561, Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9780634029561 In 2002 he released Free Ride Smooth Jazz, which included his smooth jazz radio hit remake "Jazzy Koo".
In May 2009, he self-released the album Knighted by the Blues and its popular song, "Sometimes", co-written with Jenda. Derringer followed up with the release of The Three Kings of the Blues (Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King) on Mike Varney's Blues Bureau International Records.
Derringer went on three world tours with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. For one, rehearsals began in June 2010 and they traveled across Europe, Russia, South America, Mexico and the USA. The tour featured Wally Palmar, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Richard Page, and Gregg Bissonette. Derringer played with Paul McCartney in a performance at New York's Radio City to celebrate Starr's 70th birthday.
In 2013, Derringer and Jenda created the Asia Project after she discovered that the two largest-selling songs in history were Chinese. As Ricky Wu and Jenda Tu, the Derringers recorded and released their versions of the songs: Wang Qiwen and Yang Chengang's 2004 song "Mouse Loves Rice" and the actress Liu Shi Shi's "Season of Waiting".
In 2014, Derringer performed on Peter Frampton's Guitar Circus tour with other notable guitarists, including B.B. King, Roger McGuinn (ex-The Byrds), Don Felder (ex-Eagles), Leslie West (ex-Mountain), Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, Toto's Steve Lukather, Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready.
In 2017, Derringer was charged with carrying a loaded gun on a Delta Air Lines flight from Cancún in Mexico to Atlanta, Georgia. According to his manager, Derringer believed he was permitted to carry the gun due to his possession of a valid Florida concealed weapon permit. Derringer later pleaded guilty, agreeing to pay a $1,000 fine.
In 2017, Derringer re-recorded Hulk Hogan's theme, "Real American", with updated lyrics. The re-recorded version was released on May 28, 2017. To debut and promote the re-recording, Derringer appeared on Infowars. Changes to the lyrics include "I gotta be a man, I can't let it slide" changed to "I gotta lend a hand, I can't let it slide" and "fight for the right of every man" changed to "fight for the rights of everyone". The lines "Best not mess with my US" and "Ours is a cause that's right and just, we're built on truth, in God we trust" were also added to the second verse. In 2017, Derringer collaborated with baseball players Tom Seaver and Gary Redus to release a version of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", honoring his lifelong love of baseball. In 2018 he toured with Vanilla Fudge, Mitch Ryder and Badfinger under the name "HippieFest". Derringer performed the guitar solo for an anti-bullying campaign version of "Hang on Sloopy" by the Love Love Kids, released in October 2019.
In 2017, Derringer appeared on Alex Jones's Infowars several times. In one of those appearances, political consultant Roger Stone interviewed him about his support for Donald Trump.
Live albums
Compilation albums
|
|
