He played the sinuous slide on Steely Dan's “Showbiz Kids,” helped turn Edgar Winter's “Frankenstein” into a monster single, even covered for Ace Frehley on Kiss classics “Larger Than Life” and “All-American Man.”

Maybe Rick Derringer has but one solo hit to his credit — 1974's classic-rock staple “Rock 'n' Roll Hoochie Koo” — but in the years that followed Derringer became one of rock's craftiest session artists and doubled as a hit producer for the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Meat Loaf, and a host of others.

Born Rick Zehringer in 1947, Derringer began making his living in the music business while still a teen when he formed the McCoys (named for a Ventures instrumental) with drumming brother Randy in 1962. Their first cut, 1965's “Hang On Sloopy” (written by three-chord wonder Bert Berns) was the deepest, reaching No. 1 and paving the way for yet another Top 10 hit, a cover of Peggy Lee's “Fever,” a few months later.

Derringer's next move put him in the company of rock's albino dynamos, brothers Johnny and Edgar Winter, for whom he produced a handful of efforts including the latter's 1973 Gold disc They Only Come Out at Night (featuring pop nuggets “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride”). At the same time, Derringer joined Steely Dan's rotating staff of session maestros for Countdown to Ecstasy and later Katy Lied (his solo on “Chained Lightning” remains one of Donald Fagen's personal favorites). In 1984, Derringer played on “Weird Al” Yankovic's million-selling Michael Jackson send-up “Eat It” (with Derringer doing a comical Eddie Van Halen cop), and that began a fruitful relationship that endured for the remainder of the decade.

After spending the bulk of the '90s playing blues, Derringer is now taking aim at a different audience with his new CD, titled Free Ride (Big3). The disk features smooth-jazz renditions of his old faves from his past. Transforming “Rock 'n' Roll Hoochie Koo” into “Jazzy Koo” (gulp) is one thing — but a smooth-groovin' “Frankenstein?” Pretty scary — but Derringer has a ready made answer. “If you listen to smooth jazz, you'll hear artists covering classic hits but mostly old R&B tunes,” he says, “So why not a rock 'n' roll classic instead?”