Music Video of the Day: Hang On Sloopy by Rick Derringer (1975, dir. ???)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtOYBtB3OtI

Yes, I am aware of some of Rick Derringer’s recent exploits–in real life and on Wikipedia (article | talk page | edit history). I didn’t know about them until I started looking into this video. If I were to take that kind of thing into account on every video I spotlighted, then I would be unable to do these posts at all.

That being said, I would be fascinated to find out how Derringer supposedly carries a gun on a plane 30-50 times a year. That sounds like Kevin Mitnick territory, where he should help the airlines to close up the gaps in their security that allowed that to happen.

The only reason I even came across this stuff was because I was trying to confirm something that a bunch a people have been trying to figure out about this video:

Who is the girl?

There seems to be two theories:

  1. It’s Derringer’s wife. That seems to have been dismissed as a myth.
  2. It’s Liz Brewer. This appears to be the most reputable theory. She did hang out with rockers, including Jimi Hendrix, back in the day. Today she writes about etiquette.

As for the date, I came up with 1975 based on two things:

  1. It’s in color. I know this doesn’t automatically rule out the 60s, but it was a good indicator that this wasn’t done for The McCoys original 1965 release.
  2. The song was re-released in 1975 on a best-of-Rick Derringer album.

Enjoy the song and video. And unless you have to, don’t go don’t the Wikipedia-talk-pages rathole.