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Guitarist and singer Rick Derringer, who shot to fame at 17 when his band The McCoys recorded “Hang On Sloopy,” had successful with “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” and earned a Grammy Award for producing “Weird Al” Yankovic’s debut album, has died. He was 77.
Derringer died Monday in in Ormond Seaside, Florida, in keeping with a Fb announcement from his caretaker, Tony Wilson. No reason behind dying was introduced.
Derringer’s many years within the music business spanned teen stardom, session work for bands like Steely Dan, supplying the guitar solo on Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and producing for Cyndi Lauper.
“Derringer’s legacy extends beyond his music, entertaining fans with his signature energy and talent. His passing leaves a void in the music world, and he will be deeply missed by fans, colleagues, and loved ones,” Wilson wrote.
As a teen, he fashioned the McCoys together with his brother, Randy, and located fame singing “Hang On Sloopy,” a No. 26 hit about lovers from totally different socioeconomic circumstances. Derringer loved his first solo hit with “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” which was used within the fourth season of “Stranger Things.”
His best-charting album was “All American Boy” in 1973, which included the instrumentals “Joy Ride” and “Time Warp.” His sole Grammy was for Yankovic’s “Eat It,” which had the Michael Jackson parodies “Eat It” and “Who’s Fat.”
All through the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, Derringer labored extensively as a session musician, taking part in on albums by Steely Dan — together with “Countdown to Ecstasy,” “Katy Lied” and “Gaucho” — Todd Rundgren, Kiss and Barbra Streisand. He performed on Air Provide’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All.”
Within the mid-Nineteen Eighties he started working with Lauper, touring in her band and taking part in on three of her albums, together with the hit “True Colors.” He toured with Ringo Starr and The All-Starr Band.
In 1985, he produced the World Wrestling Federation’s “The Wrestling Album,” which consisted primarily largely of professional wrestlers’ theme songs, lots of which he co-wrote, together with what would develop into Hulk Hogan’s theme track “Real American.”
