Back in 1965, the McCoys’ version of Hang on Sloopy spent one week at the top of the Billboard pop charts, dethroning Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction before being shoved aside itself by the Beatles’ Yesterday. All told, it spent 11 weeks in Billboard’s Top 40, for many songs a pretty good run.
But that was hardly the end of the Sloopy story, which included its becoming a standard for the Ohio State University marching band and, at least according to the General Assembly, the official rock song of the state of Ohio. That, for real, is hanging on.