A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(December 2017) |
Rick Derringer | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Richard Dean Zehringer |
Born | Celina, Ohio, U.S. | August 5, 1947
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, producer |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals |
Years active | 1965–present |
Formerly of |
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Website | rickderringer |
Rick Derringer (born Richard Dean Zehringer; August 5, 1947) is an American musician, producer, and songwriter. He achieved success during the 1960s with his then band, the McCoys. Their debut single, "Hang on Sloopy", was a number-one hit in 1965 and became a classic track of the garage rock era. The McCoys then had seven songs that charted in the top 100, including versions of "Fever" and "Come on Let's Go".
In 1970, Derringer experienced further success with his own song, "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo". He also worked extensively with brothers Edgar and Johnny Winter, playing lead and backing guitar in their bands and producing all of their gold and platinum recordings, including Edgar Winter's hits "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride" (both in 1973). He has additionally worked with Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper and "Weird Al" Yankovic, producing Yankovic's Grammy Award-winning songs "Eat It" (1984) and "Fat" (1988). Derringer also produced the World Wrestling Federation's album The Wrestling Album (1985) and its follow-up Piledriver: The Wrestling Album II (1987). The albums included the entrance song for Hulk Hogan, "Real American", and the Demolition tag team, "Demolition". Derringer also produced three songs from the soundtrack of the 1984 Tom Hanks movie Bachelor Party .
Derringer was born in Celina, Ohio, [1] and grew up in Fort Recovery, the son of John Otto and Janice Lavine (Thornburg) Zehringer, a section foreman on the Nickel Plate Railroad. [2] According to Derringer, other than his parents' extensive record collection, his first major influence was an uncle, Jim Thornburg, a popular guitarist and singer in Ohio. Derringer has related first hearing him play guitar in the kitchen of his parents' home, and knowing immediately that he wanted to play guitar. He was then eight years old and his parents gave him his first electric guitar for his ninth birthday. [3] It was not long before he and his brother, Randy, were playing music together.
After the eighth grade, the family moved to Union City, Indiana, where he formed a band that he called the McCoys. He later changed the name to the Rick Z Combo and then Rick and the Raiders before going back to the band's original name.
In summer 1965, before Derringer turned 18, the McCoys were hired to back up a New York–based band called the Strangeloves in concert. The members of the Strangeloves were also record producers from New York City and were seeking a band to record a song "My Girl Sloopy", and they chose the McCoys. Derringer later convinced the producers to change the song title to "Hang On Sloopy". After the Strangeloves recorded all the guitar and instrumental parts, Derringer and the McCoys were brought into the studio to sing on the recording and release it under their name. The song stayed at number one while The Beatles's "Yesterday" was number two. [4] "Hang On Sloopy" has since become synonymous with Derringer's home state of Ohio, as fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes often chant "O-H-I-O" during breaks in the song's chorus, and is often played at home football games at Ohio Stadium. The song is also played during Cleveland Guardians home games at Progressive Field.
Derringer married Liz Agriss in 1969. [5]
Derringer, with his band, the McCoys, joined Johnny Winter in a band that they called "Johnny Winter And", the "And" referring to the McCoys. Derringer joined Edgar Winter's White Trash and then, the Edgar Winter Group. [6]
In 1973, Derringer released his first solo album All-American Boy , [7] which included his song "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo". [8] By then, the song had appeared on Johnny Winter And (1970), [6] and also the White Trash Roadwork (1972) albums. Derringer's version rose to the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, becoming his highest-charting single. [9] One critic has described the album as a "sadly neglected album of great merit". [10]
Derringer's later albums, both solo and with his band Derringer, included 1977's Sweet Evil which had been co-written with Cynthia Weil and the Rolling Thunder Revue author Larry Sloman, [11] and the critically acclaimed album, Guitars and Women (1979), which was re-released with liner notes by Razor & Tie in 1998.
Around this time he played guitar on two Steely Dan tracks, "Show Biz Kids" on Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) and "Chain Lightning" on Katy Lied (1975). Derringer is credited with helping Donald Fagen gain a record deal in 1972. [12]
Derringer worked with his neighbor Todd Rundgren during this time, playing on four of Rundgren's solo albums. He was also a regular in Andy Warhol's circle, [13] and he frequented Warhol's studio The Factory. [14]
Derringer played guitar on "My Rival" on Steely Dan's Gaucho (1980) and also Fagen's first solo album, The Nightfly (1982). In 1983, he played guitar on two hit power ballads written and produced by Jim Steinman: Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" and Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart". He has said that his guitar solo in "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" is his favorite guitar solo of the many he has recorded. [15] The same year, he recorded guitar parts for Meat Loaf's poorly received album Midnight at the Lost and Found . Both "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" were originally offered to Meat Loaf by Steinman for that album, but Meat Loaf's record company refused to pay Steinman for the compositions. [16] In 1983, Derringer wrote "Shake Me" from his Good Dirty Fun solo album. A video followed, which was produced by Jake Hooker (the husband of Lorna Luft), singer Lourett Russell Grant modeled in the video production with Derringer.
In 1984, Derringer played guitar on Barbra Streisand's cover version of Steinman's "Left in the Dark", which was released as the lead single of Emotion .
In 1985, Derringer's friendship with Cyndi Lauper led him and Steinman to collaborate again, Derringer producing The Wrestling Album (1985) for the World Wrestling Federation, an album consisting mostly of wrestlers' theme songs. He wrote a couple of songs on it, including Hulk Hogan's theme song "Real American", [17] with Bernard Kenny. That song was also used by US President Barack Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner, where he played the song while unveiling his birth certificate. [18] It was also 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. [19]
In 1986, he returned to the Meat Loaf fold for Blind Before I Stop . Derringer co-wrote the song "Masculine".
Also in 1986, he played guitar on two songs from the album True Colors (Cyndi Lauper album) by Cyndi Lauper, Calm Inside the Storm and The Faraway Nearby. During the period 1986–1992 he was a guitarist on her tours, which he compared to Barbra Streisand in these terms: "She's better live than Barbra". And he played again with Cyndi on her 3rd album A Night to Remember which was released in 1989.
In 1987, Meat Loaf guested on Way Off Broadway, a nationally distributed cable TV show with Derringer as the music director, with the show's host, the comedienne/interviewer Joy Behar. Other guests on the show included Larry Carlton, Robbie Dupree and Edgar Winter. [20]
Also in 1987, Derringer returned to the World Wrestling Federation and produced its second music album, Piledriver: The Wrestling Album II . He co-wrote the theme tune for Demolition and also added a fresh version of "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" as a duet with Gene Okerlund. [21]
He worked for several New York City-based jingle houses in the 1980s. Derringer went on to produce "Weird Al" Yankovic's first album, "Weird Al" Yankovic (1983). Derringer ultimately produced six Yankovic albums between 1983 and 1989; for this work, he received his only Grammy Award. [22] Yankovic has said that he is open to working with Derringer again. [23]
In 1997, Derringer became an Evangelical Christian. [24] Since then, he has consistently aligned himself with conservative causes in the United States. [25] Derringer describes himself as a "Jesus freak". [26]
In 2001, Derringer, Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice released the album Derringer, Bogert & Appice (DBA): Doin' Business as... on the German record label Steamhammer Records. [27] Derringer had previously worked with Appice on an album, Party Tested by DNA (Derringer'n'Appice), and it was re-released in 2011. [28]
In 2001, Derringer, his wife, and their children released the first two of four Christian music albums, all through Panda Studio Productions: [29] Aiming 4 Heaven (2001), [30] [31] Derringer X 2 (2001), [32] the holiday album, Winter Wonderland (2004), [33] and We Live (2008) . [34] [35] In 2002, Derringer was featured in a book, written by Dan Muise, called Gallagher, Marriott, Derringer & Trower – Their Lives and Music. [36]
He released Free Ride Smooth Jazz (2002), which had vocals by his wife Jenda (née Brenda Jean), who sang the title song "Free Ride" and, with Derringer, wrote the song "Hot & Cool". Also included is his smooth jazz radio hit re-make, "Jazzy Koo". [37]
In May 2009, he self-released the album Knighted by the Blues and its popular song, "Sometimes", once again, 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. [38]
Derringer and a range of hitmakers are part of Voices, a company that finds private events many times a year. Some of the artists involved with Voices are Tone-Loc, Wally Palmar, Kim Carnes, Belinda Carlisle, Tommy Tutone, Mark McGrath, Fastball, Skip Martin, Jakob Dylan, Natasha Bedingfield, Coolio, John Rzeznik, Martha Davis, Silverchair, Steve Augeri, John Elefante, Alex Ligertwood, Jeff Lyons, and the Rembrandts. [39]
Derringer went on three world tours with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Rehearsals started in June 2010. They traveled in Europe, Russia, South America, Mexico and the USA. The tour featured Wally Palmar, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Richard Page and Gregg Bissonette. [40]
In the 1980s, he produced the Kodomo Band. He has toured in Asia, including with Edgar Winter, the 1990 White Lightning Tour in both Japan and Germany. [41]
In 2013, he and Jenda created the Asia Project after she discovered that the two largest-selling songs in history are Chinese. As Ricky Wu and Jenda Tu, the Derringers recorded and released their versions. The songs are Wang Qiwen and Yang Chengang's 2004 song "Mouse Loves Rice", [42] and the actress Liu Shi Shi's "Season of Waiting". [43]
In 2014, Derringer performed on Peter Frampton's Guitar Circus tour with other notable guitarists, including B.B. King, Roger McGuinn (ex-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. [44]
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 thought he was permitted to carry the gun, based on his possession of a valid Florida concealed weapon permit. [45] Derringer later pleaded guilty, agreeing to pay a $1,000 fine, saying it would not happen again, "not even a water pistol". [46]
A re-recording of 1985's The Wrestling Album's "Real American" with updated lyrics was released on May 28, 2017, debuting on Alex Jones's radio show. [47] "I gotta be a man, I can't let it slide" was changed to "I gotta lend a hand, I can't let it slide" and "fight for the right of every man" became "fight for the rights of everyone". "Best not mess with my US" is added before the second verse, and a new line says, "Ours is a cause that's right and just, we're built on truth, in God we trust". [48] The same year, Derringer appeared on Alex Jones's show, where he was interviewed by the political consultant Roger Stone about Derringer's support for Donald Trump. [49]
In 2017, Derringer collaborated with the baseball players Tom Seaver and Gary Redus to release a version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", honoring his lifelong love of baseball.
In 2018, Derringer embarked on a tour with Vanilla Fudge, Mitch Ryder and Badfinger under the name "HippieFest". [50]
He played the guitar solo to an anti-bullying campaign version of "Hang on Sloopy" by the Love Love Kids, released in October 2019. [51]
"Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" is used in the 1993 film Dazed and Confused , [52] as well as in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II in 2007 and Rock Band 4 in 2015. The song was also made available as downloadable content for the guitar learning software/game Rocksmith 2014 in January 2015.
Studio albums
Live albums
Compilation albums
- Formed in 1965 by Richard Zehringer on guitar and vocals, Dennis Kelly on bass who will be replaced by Randy Jo Hobbs and Randy Zehringer on drums.
(duet with Carmine Appice)
- Not to be confused with the Derringer group, this band The Derringers was rather a family project bringing together Rick Derringer himself, his wife Brenda Jean and their two children towards religious music. Four albums will be produced under this name:
(trio with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice)
John Dawson Winter III was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums, live performances, and slide guitar playing from the late 1960s into the early 2000s. He also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. After his time with Waters, Winter recorded several Grammy-nominated blues albums. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and in 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
"Frankenstein" is an instrumental track by the American rock band Edgar Winter Group that was featured in the 1972 album They Only Come Out at Night and additionally released as a single.
The McCoys were a rock group formed in Union City, Indiana, United States, in 1962. They are best known for their 1965 hit single "Hang On Sloopy". Originally named Rick and the Raiders, they changed their name to "The McCoys" from the B-side of The Ventures' hit record "Walk, Don't Run" titled "The McCoy".
Edgar Holland Winter is an American multi-instrumentalist, working as a vocalist along with playing keyboards, saxophone, and percussion. His success peaked in the 1970s with his band the Edgar Winter Group and their popular songs "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride". He is the brother of late blues singer and guitarist Johnny Winter.
"Hang On Sloopy" is a 1964 song written by Wes Farrell and Bert Berns. Rhythm and blues vocal group the Vibrations were the first to record the tune in 1964. Atlantic Records released it as a single, which reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song is associated with Ohio State University and is Ohio's official rock song.
John Voorhis "Tim" Bogert III was an American musician. As a bass guitarist and vocalist he was best known for his powerful vocal ability and his fast runs, fluid agility and ground-breaking sound on his Fender Precision Bass. He was one of the pioneers of using distortion with his bass to help it cut through the mix with the low-powered amps of his time which also imparted a very sharp-edged sound to it. He was a frequent collaborator with drummer Carmine Appice; the duo performed in such bands as Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice.
Bobby Caldwell is an American drummer, songwriter, producer and arranger who co-founded the rock bands Captain Beyond and Armageddon during the early 1970s. Prior to these projects he played on seminal Johnny Winter albums such as Live Johnny Winter And and Saints and Sinners. Caldwell was also the drummer on Rick Derringer's All American Boy, which produced the classic-rock radio staple "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo"; a song originally written by Derringer and recorded by the band, Johnny Winter and, with Derringer's brother, Randy Z on drums. He also played with John Lennon, Ringo Starr, The Allman Brothers Band, and Eric Clapton. Caldwell and Derringer recorded "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" at Caribou Ranch in Colorado.
William Frank Szymczyk is an American music producer and recording engineer best known for working with rock and blues musicians, most notably the Eagles in the 1970s. He produced many top albums and singles of the 1970s, though—aside from continuing to work with Joe Walsh—he retired from the music business in 1990. He re-emerged in the late 2000s, taking on select projects including the 2007 Eagles album Long Road Out of Eden and the 2008 eponymous debut of Brian Vander Ark.
They Only Come Out at Night is the debut studio album by American rock band The Edgar Winter Group, released in November 1972 by Epic Records. A commercial success, the album reached #3 on the US Billboard 200 chart and features the band's signature songs, "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride". The album was certified gold on April 30, 1973, and platinum on November 21, 1986, by the RIAA. The single "Frankenstein" was certified gold June 19, 1973, by the RIAA. In Canada, the album reached #4 on 2 separate occasions - May 5 and June 16, totaling 14 weeks in the top 10. The third single, "Hangin' Around", reached #39 in the singles chart.
Kenny Aaronson is an American bass guitar player. He has recorded or performed with several notable artists such as Bob Dylan, Rick Derringer, Billy Idol, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Foghat, Sammy Hagar, Billy Squier, New York Dolls, and Hall and Oates. Since 2015, he has been the bass player for The Yardbirds.
Roadwork is a live album by vocalist/keyboardist/saxophonist Edgar Winter and his band White Trash, a powerful revue famous for their fusion of funk, gospel, R&B, and rock 'n' roll. It was released as a double LP in 1972. Roadwork was the second of only three albums the band recorded together.
Johnny Winter And is the fourth studio album by Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter, released in 1970. Besides Winter, the group included guitarist Rick Derringer, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs and drummer Randy Zehringer, all former members of the McCoys. This was the first album released with Rick Derringer as a sideman. It was also the name of his band for a short time.
Live Johnny Winter And is an album by Johnny Winter, recorded with his group Johnny Winter And live during the fall of 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City and at Pirate's World in Dania, Florida. It was released in March 1971.
Still Alive and Well is an album by blues rock guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. It was his fifth studio album, and his first since Johnny Winter And almost three years earlier. It was released by Columbia Records in 1973.
"Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" is a rock song written by American musician Rick Derringer. It was first recorded in 1970 by Johnny Winter and his band Johnny Winter And, of which Derringer was a member. In 1973, Derringer recorded a solo version, which was his only Top 40 chart hit as a solo artist in the U.S. It became a staple of 1970s classic rock radio and rock music compilations. Both Winter and Derringer have recorded multiple live versions of the song.
All American Boy is the debut solo studio album by American rock musician Rick Derringer, released in October 1973 by Blue Sky Records. "Joy Ride" and "Time Warp" are instrumentals.
Stephen Neal Paul was an American talent manager and nightclub owner. Paul was the one-time manager of Johnny Winter, among other related performers, as well as being the owner of The Scene, a popular New York City club from 1964 to 1970, and the founder of Blue Sky Records.
Live at the Fillmore East 10/3/70 is an album by Johnny Winter And, a blues rock band led by guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. As the name suggests, the album was recorded live at the Fillmore East in New York City on October 3, 1970. It was released by Collectors' Choice Music on April 20, 2010.
True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story is a compilation album by blues rock guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. Comprising four CDs, and packaged as a box set, it contains songs selected from numerous albums – some recorded in the studio and some live – released over a 43-year period, from 1968 to 2011, as well as several previously unreleased tracks. The box set also includes a 50-page booklet of essays and photos. It was released by Legacy Recordings on February 25, 2014.
The Essential Johnny Winter is a two-CD album by guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. It is a compilation of songs from previously released albums, many of them from the late 1960s and the 1970s. It was released by Columbia Records on April 30, 2013.