Rick Derringer was the mastermind behind ‘60s classics like “Hang On Sloopy” and “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” but in the 1980s, he took a detour from the typical rock and roll track when he partnered with Weird Al Yankovic.
In a 2024 interview, republished posthumously in Classic Rock's August 2025 issue, Derringer looked back on the unlikely collaboration and didn’t sugarcoat the fallout.
“I left him after six albums, two Grammys and two stars on a Hollywood Walk Of Fame. He's done very well. But here's the bottom line: I thought that it would help my production career,” he told Classic Rock’s sister publication Guitar Player at the time. “Suddenly I became known as a novelty producer. As much as I love Weird Al – he's a good guy, very talented and a hard worker – he single-handedly ruined my production career.”
A representative for Yankovic did not immediately respond to Parade’s request for comment.
Still, Derringer said that working with Al “didn’t strike [him] as unusual” despite the raised eyebrows from industry peers.
“A lot of people were like: ‘What's Rick doing?’ You know, I had a pretty good production career going for myself, so it didn't strike me as unusual to work with Weird Al,” Derringer explained. “I grew up in a family that liked novelty music. They had 78s of Spike Jones and stuff like that.”
He continued, “When I was approached to do a single with Al, I said: ‘Do you have more songs like this?’ He said yeah, so I said we should do a whole album. I thought if we can make a success of his songs, it would have no competition. Because there wasn't anything like his stuff out at the time.”
Derringer went on to produce Yankovic’s first album – 1983’s self-titled record, Weird Al Yankovic, but the ‘70s guitar icon said there was “no record company support at all.”
He added, “We made a great record and sold it to this label, Scotti Brothers. The Scotti brothers were in record promotion, and they had just started a record company. There were other record companies that wanted the album, but I told Al: ‘If the Scotti brothers take it, you'll probably be cheated, but you'll probably be guaranteed of having a hit because these guys are good at what they do.’ We released it on the Scotti Brothers, and it was an instant hit.”
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