Rick Derringer was the talent of a generation, just 17 years old when his band The McCoys topped the US singles chart with Hang On Sloopy, their cover of a past hit for the R&B group The Vibrations, in the summer of 1965.
The first of seven hit singles, Hang On Sloopy was the start of it all for The McCoys and a launch pad for guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer Rick Derringer, a fiercely ambitious and prodigiously gifted entertainer who would go on to have a career that lasted for six decades.
