In the summer of 1965, the Indiana-based band the McCoys released their debut single. While many bands often face some disappointment at the beginning of their careers, the McCoys burst out of the gate with the catchy tune “Hang On Sloopy,” and by Oct. 2, it had reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. While the McCoys never earned any Grammy awards during their career, they received an even bigger reward in 1985, when “Hang On Sloopy” was immortalized as Ohio’s state rock song.
How does a song, whose band members hailed from Indiana, end up as Ohio’s rock anthem? While bass player Randy Jo Hobbs and keyboard player Ronnie Brandon were from Indiana, the McCoy’s lead singer and drummer were originally from Fort Recovery, Ohio. Rick Derringer (originally Zehringer) and Randy Zehringer‘s family moved to Union City, Indiana, just before Derringer entered ninth grade. Being right on the border, it was easy for both states to claim the McCoys as their own.
‘We Want Sloopy!’: The Stadium Phenomenon
The same year American audiences fell in love with it, Ohio State Buckeyes’ football fans did too. It just took a little bit of convincing to get the Ohio State University Marching Band to play it. But after John Tatgenhorst, a drummer in the marching band, talked the band’s director, Charles Spohn, into playing it, it became one of the most requested songs at games.
“There were some games where we played it five or six times,” Paul Droste, who became the marching band’s director in 1970, told the Ohio Magazine. “It would get quiet in the stadium and you’d hear someone start yelling, ‘We want Sloopy!’ … I cut back a little on it in 1970, and I think that might have saved it.”
Making It Ohio Law
Fifteen years later, Joe Dirck, a journalist for The Columbus Citizen-Journal, found out that Washington was attempting to make “Louie Louie,” The Kingmen’s 1963 hit, its state rock song. After gaining public support through his column, Representative Mike Stinziano introduced it to the Ohio House. The House approved the resolution, and the Ohio Senate followed…