Everybody knows the various Rick Derringer versions of his rock standard, but its first appearance on vinyl (that’s all we had back then, kids) came on “Johnny Winter And,” the original name of which was “Johnny Winter and the McCoys,” the band Derringer (then Rick Zehringer, his birth name) fronted in its “Hang on Sloopy” days.
This original version lacks the backing vocals Derringer later added. Instead he and Winter launch a killer twin-guitar assault — check how tight they are on those fills after each line of the verse — that they expanded into dueling solos in live performances, like the one captured on Edgar Winter’s “Roadwork” live album below. Derringer was playing with Edgar by then, but Johnny stopped by for a guest appearance.
By 1973, with the Edgar Winter Group, Derringer — a good enough guitarist that he features on a couple of Steely Dan tunes — had added the background vocals (and his hokey “keep on rockin'” line) but in this live version at least tears off a nice solo.
