Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
Studio album by Rainbow
Released	July, 1975
Recorded	February 20, 1975 to March 14, 1975
Genre	Hard rock
Length	36:54
Label	Polydor
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Rainbow chronology
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975) Rising (1976)

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is the first album by hard rock band Rainbow, released in July 1975. It was recorded and released while lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was still a member of Deep Purple. Lead vocalist Ronnie James Dio has called this his favourite Rainbow album.^[1]

Background

Elf had supported Deep Purple on the previous year's tour promoting the band's album Burn. This album marked the first collaboration between Dio and Blackmore, and it is essentially the lineup of Elf, Dio's previous band, with Blackmore instead of Steve Edwards. Blackmore would dismiss all the other Elf musicians and recruit new players for subsequent Rainbow albums.

Two of the songs on the album were cover versions. "Black Sheep of the Family", a song that Deep Purple had refused to record for their album Stormbringer, was a cover of a song recorded by Quartermass, and "Still I'm Sad" was an instrumental cover of a Yardbirds track.

The original vinyl release had a gatefold sleeve, although later reissues on the budget arms of Polydor reduced this to a single sleeve. This line-up never performed live and the live-shots used in the album art are of Blackmore in his Deep Purple days and of Elf playing live. The album's songs, however, have been performed by subsequent Rainbow lineups.

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was re-issued on CD in remastered form, in the US in April 1999. The European release followed later in the year.

Track listing

All songs written by Ronnie James Dio and Ritchie Blackmore, except where indicated.

Side one

1. "Man on the Silver Mountain" – 4:42
2. "Self Portrait" – 3:17
3. "Black Sheep of the Family" (Steve Hammond) – 3:22
4. "Catch the Rainbow" – 6:27

Side two

1. "Snake Charmer" – 4:33
2. "The Temple of the King" – 4:45
3. "If You Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll" – 2:38
4. "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" – 3:31
5. "Still I'm Sad" (Paul Samwell-Smith, Jim McCarty) – 3:51

Note: On the cassette version of the album, Side One features the last five tracks, while Side Two plays the first four. Also, on the case insert and on the cassette itself, "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" is written as "Sixteen Century Greensleeves".

Personnel

• Ronnie James Dio – vocals
• Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
• Micky Lee Soule – keyboards
• Craig Gruber – bass
• Gary Driscoll – drums

Covers

• Ritchie Blackmore's current band, Blackmore's Night, performed a live cover of 'Sixteenth Century Greensleeves' (titled as '16th Century Greensleeves') on their 2002 live album Past Times with Good Company. They have also released a cover version of 'Self Portrait' on their 1999 studio album Under a Violet Moon.

References

1. ^ Popoff, Martin. The Very Beast of Dio (liner notes). pp. 11.