Rick Derringer, Guitar Journeyman Behind ‘Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo,’ Dead at 77

Rick Derringer, the guitarist and songwriter who scored hits with “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” and a cover of “Hang on Sloopy” while working with everyone from Steely Dan to “Weird Al” Yankovic, died on Monday. He was 77. 

Derringer’s death was confirmed by his friend, Tony Wilson, on Facebook. No cause of death has been given, though an official Facebook page for Derringer and his wife had detailed several health issues in recent months, including ankle bypass surgery (which creates a new pathway for blood to get around a blocked artery). 

Yankovic, with whom Derringer worked extensively in the Eighties, wrote on Instagram, “I’m very sad to say that my friend, rock guitar legend Rick Derringer, has passed. Rick produced my first 6 albums and played guitar on my earliest recordings, including the solo on ‘Eat It.’ He had an enormous impact on my life, and will be missed greatly.”

Derringer was a true rock & roll journeyman, releasing a plethora of solo projects and collaborating with an array of artists over the course of his six-decade career. He worked extensively with Johnny and Edgar Winter, and racked up credits on albums by Barbra Streisand, Todd Rundgren, Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf, Kiss, Bonnie Tyler, and Cyndi Lauper. 

Born Aug. 5, 1947, Derringer grew up mostly in Ohio, before moving just across the state line to Union City, Indiana. There, he joined his first band, the McCoys, and while still a teenager, scored a Number One hit with the garage pop gem, “Hang on Sloopy.” While the song spent just one week at Number One, it became an anthem in Ohio, adopted as the state’s official rock song, and played during Cleveland Guardians, Browns, and Cavaliers games. The Ohio State University marching band has regularly played the song at football games since 1965. 

Derringer continued with the McCoys through the late Sixties, with the group eventually linking up with Johnny Winter. After the band broke up, Derringer continued to work with Johnny and his brother, Edgar, on their various projects, both together and separate. Derringer famously produced two Edgar Winter classics, “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride.” 

In 1973, Derringer released his debut solo album, All American Boy, which featured his biggest solo hit, “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo.” The song cracked the Top 40, peaking at Number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100, and has enjoyed a long life since as a classic rock radio staple. 

Derringer had originally written and recorded “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” a few years prior while he and the McCoys were still playing with Johnny Winter. As he told Guitar Player last year, Derringer said that when he wrote the song, “The first thing I did was make sure the music was more commercial, more rock-oriented. I wrote ‘Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo’ — the rock was me and ‘hoochie koo’ was Johnny. He was the band leader, so we did it his way.”

Of his distinctly different version, he added: “The one I did with Johnny was more in keeping with his style. When I did my version, it was my opportunity to play and create what I thought it could be. I went for it.”

Throughout the Seventies and Eighties, Derringer continued to release albums under his own name, and as the group Derringer. As a session player, he played on several Steely Dan favorites (“Show Biz Kids,” “Chain Lightning,” and “My Rival”) and contributed to Donald Fagen’s 1982 solo album, The Nightfly. He also played with Lauper on two of her solo albums (True Colors and A Night to Remember), and in her touring band. 

Derringer frequently worked on projects helmed by the celebrated songwriter and producer Jim Steinman, including hits like Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” and Barbra Streisand’s “Left in the Dark.” Derringer and Steinman also spearheaded the World Wrestling Federation’s 1985 soundtrack album, The Wrestling Album, with Derringer famously composing and performing Hulk Hogan’s theme song, “Real American.” (Derringer also helmed the 1987 sequel record, Piledriver: The Wrestling Album II.) 

But throughout the Eighties, the artist Derringer worked most closely with “Weird Al” Yankovic. He produced Yankovic’s first six, wildly successful studio albums, and won his first and only Grammy for “Eat It,” Yankovic’s classic spoof of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” 

In that Guitar Player interview, Derringer admitted to having complicated feelings about his work with Yankovic. At first, he said, people found his decision to work with Yankovic confusing, but Derringer didn’t find it odd at all having grown up with a family that loved novelty records by artists like Spike Jones. Derringer even remembered thinking, “If we can make a success of his songs, it would have no competition,” because “there wasn’t anything like this stuff out at the time.” 

But by the end of the decade, Derringer had grown concerned that his work with Yankovic had pigeonholed him as a producer. “Here’s the bottom line: I thought that it would help my production career, but suddenly I became known as a novelty producer,” he said. “As much as I love ‘Weird Al’ — he’s a good guy, very talented and a hard worker — he single-handedly ruined my production career.”

Derringer continued his prolific output throughout the Nineties and into the new millennium. He spent several years touring with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, and also featured on Peter Frampton’s Guitar Circus tour. As for his studio output, he often worked closely with his wife Jenda, doing everything from electric blues to contemporary Christian music.