Artist

Rick Derringer

Celina, United States • 1947 – 2025

Rick Derringer is a musician from Celina, United States, active 1947–2025. Their discography on Gatefold includes 23 records.

Start your shelf →Open in app

Albums tracked

In collections

1947

Since

Biography

Richard Dean Zehringer (August 5, 1947 – May 26, 2025), known professionally as Rick Derringer, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first achieved commercial success in the 1960s with his band the McCoys. Their debut single, "Hang On Sloopy", reached number one in the United States in 1965 and is regarded as a representative recording of the garage rock era. The McCoys had seven songs reach the US top 100, including versions of "Fever" and "Come On, Let's Go".

The Arc of Rick Derringer

The pivots — what forced Rick Derringer to reinvent.

The Winter Salvation
By 1970, the bubblegum money from The McCoys had run dry and Derringer was desperate for a reset. Johnny Winter literally hired the entire McCoys lineup to be his backing band, transforming them into "Johnny Winter And." This move threw Derringer into a world of hyper-speed blues-rock jams. You can hear the change on the 1971 live album, where Derringer's sharp, rhythmic discipline perfectly anchors Johnny's chaotic, cocaine-fueled slide work.
The Solo Peak
Derringer signed with Blue Sky Records in 1973 and went into the studio with producer Bill Szymczyk to cut All American Boy. He took "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo"—a song he had originally written and recorded with Johnny Winter—and sped up the tempo, cranked the mid-range on his Gibson Les Paul, and created the definitive 1970s guitar anthem. The album was a tight, punchy mix of glam-adjacent rock and singer-songwriter ballads. It proved he could lead a band instead of just saving other people's sessions.
The Hard Rock Power Trio Experiment
Frustrated by the softer pop direction of his solo albums, Derringer formed the band Derringer in 1976 with bassist Kenny Aaronson and future talents like Danny Johnson. He wanted a heavier, twin-guitar attack that could compete with Aerosmith and Kiss on the arena circuit. The self-titled debut was a loud, riff-heavy affair that stripped away the horn sections and acoustic guitars of his previous records. The live shows were blistering, but the chemistry fizzled after three studio albums because the label kept demanding radio-friendly pop singles.

Influences

Chuck Berry — Derringer spent his teenage years dissecting Berry's double-stop guitar intro style. You can hear this direct influence on the opening riff of "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" and his cover of "Beyond the Universe." He took the classic Chicago rock-and-roll shuffle and sped it up for the arena crowd.
The Ventures — Before he picked up a Gibson, Derringer learned to play guitar by mimicking the clean, surf-rock instrumentals of this band. The melodic precision and heavy use of the whammy bar on early McCoys tracks like "Fever" stem directly from this influence. He kept that clean, melodic picking style even when he turned his amplifier volume up to ten.
Howlin' Wolf — The heavy, rhythmic blues groove of Wolf's Chess Records catalog was the blueprint for Derringer's guitar work with Johnny Winter. You hear it on the tracking of "Still Alive and Well," where he locks into a heavy, repetitive blues-shuffle pattern. He traded the acoustic folk-blues style for this louder, electric Chicago drive.
The Beatles — The McCoys toured as an opening act for The Beatles during their 1966 American tour, which completely changed how Derringer viewed pop songwriting. He studied how McCartney and Lennon structured their vocal harmonies and applied those exact patterns to his 1973 solo track "Still Alive and Well." It gave his heaviest rock songs a polished, pop-radio sensibility.
Albert King — Derringer frequently cited King's massive, wide-interval string bending as the foundation for his own lead style. You hear this influence on the soaring solos of "Slide On Over Slipped On In" from the Spring Fever album. He took King's signature blues bends and squeezed them through a high-gain Marshall stack.