Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…..
NOT Snoopy! It is SLOOPY!!!
“Hang on Sloopy” is a hit song by the pop group The McCoys which was #1 in America in October 1965 and is the official rock song of the state of Ohio and The Ohio State University. It was written by Wes Farrell and Bert Russell and is named for singer Dorothy Sloop (1913–1998), who used the name “Sloopy” on stage.
The song was originally titled “My Girl Sloopy” and was first recorded by The Vibrations in 1964 on Atlantic Records (45-2222), becoming a top thirty hit. It was the title track of a live 1965 recording (released on Rhapsody in 1966) by the Ramsey Lewis Trio which earned a gold record. It has also been recorded by Arseno Rodriguez (Bang 1966), The Supremes (Motown 1966), The Kingsmen (WAND 1966), Little Caesar and the Consuls, The Yardbirds, Saving Jane, Jan & Dean (Capitol 1966) and Die Toten Hosen (2002). It has also been performed by Johnny Thunders and the Oddballs in a medley with “Louie Louie” and can be heard on the “Add Water and Stir” live Japan bootleg.
History
In 1965, The Strangeloves, a rock band who purported to be from Australia, decided to make the song the follow-up to their hit single “I Want Candy“, and began performing the song in concert. However, the Dave Clark Five, who they were touring with, told the Strangeloves that they were going to record their own version of the song, copying the Strangeloves’ arrangement. The Strangeloves realized that the Dave Clark Five’s version would probably outsell their own, but they were still enjoying success with “I Want Candy” and did not want to release a new single yet. So the trio���who were, in reality, three successful writer/producers from Brooklyn, New York–recruited a group from Dayton, Ohio, Rick and the Raiders, to record the song instead. The group’s name was changed to The McCoys (to avoid confusion with another popular band of the era, Paul Revere and the Raiders), and their 16-year-old leader, Rick Zehringer, became known as Rick Derringer. The group added vocals and a guitar solo to the already-completed Strangeloves backing track, and the single was released on Bang Records. It entered the chart on August 14, 1965, effectively beating the Dave Clark Five to the charts. The single went on to hit number one on October 2.
The song gained an association with the Ohio State University after its marching band began playing it at football games; it first played it October 9, 1965 after a band member, John Tatgenhorst, begged the director to try playing it. After finally convincing the director, Tatgenhorst arranged the song and the band played. After the crowd reaction, the band began to play it at every game and now it is a Saturday tradition to play the song before the start of the fourth quarter of every Buckeye game. Since then, the song has become an unofficial fight song for the university, with it appearing on the band’s CDs and as a free download on its website.
The song has also become a feature at all Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns home games where, like at Ohio State, it is traditionally played before the fourth quarter. Fans usually chant the letters “O, H, I, O” during the pauses in the chorus while mimicking the shape of the letters with their arms. It is also sometimes done at home games of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Indians.
The “O, H, I, O” chant was incorporated into a version of the song recorded by the Columbus, Ohio based rock band Saving Jane.
Legacy
The basic riff of the song became a staple of garage bands during the 1960s, being used on such songs as The Weeds‘ “It’s Your Time” and Kit and the Outlaws‘ “Don’t Tread on Me.” A 1973 cover version by Ramsey Lewis won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance in 1974. A parody named “Hang on Snoopy” was included on Swiss rock group Patent Ochsner‘s 1994 album Gm��es. All-girl Japanese punk band Lolita No. 18 covered the song, which is a testament to its far-reaching influences. The song was also covered by the German punk-rock band Die Toten Hosen as b-side for their 2000 single “Bayern.” Also in 2000, Aaron Carter recorded his version, included as a bonus track on his second album, Aaron’s Party (Come Get It). In 2006, the rock group Saving Jane recorded the song as part of Ohio State‘s failed run to capture the NCAA Football Championship. There is a character in the novel The Wanderers by Richard Price named “Hang On Sloopy.” The song also appears in several Peanuts cartoons but the words are altered slightly to “Hang on Snoopy”.
RICK DERRINGER & FRIENDS-
HANG ON SLOOPY Live 1982
YAY!!!!! Let’s Dance!!!!
![](https://i0.wp.com/us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/41.gif)