McCoys

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The original members, all from Union City were guitarist Ricky Zehringer (later known as Rick Derringer), his brother Randy on drums, and bassist Dennis Kelly. This first line-up was known as The Rick Z Combo, and later known as Rick and the Raiders. When Kelly left for college, the Zehringers were joined by bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, saxophonist Sean Michaels, and keyboardist Ronnie Brandon. This was the line-up that took the name of The McCoys. Brandon left the group in 1965 and was replaced by Bobby Peterson on keyboards.
One of their best-known songs is "Hang on Sloopy", which was #1 in America in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October 1965 and is the official rock song of the state of Ohio. American sales alone were over one million copies. Other hits include a Top 10 cover of "Fever" (Billboard #7), and a Top 40 cover of Ritchie Valens's "Come On Let's Go" (Billboard #21).
A cover of "Sorrow", the B-side of their version of "Fever", was a hit in the United Kingdom for The Merseys and was later covered again by David Bowie.
Hobbs died of drug-related heart failure on 5 August 1993, (Rick Derringer's birthday), at the age of 45.