Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

During studio sessions in Tampa Bay, Florida on 12 December 1974, Blackmore originally planned to record the solo single "Black Sheep of the Family"- a cover of a track by the band Quatermass from 1970 - and the newly composed "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves", which was to be the B-side. Other musicians involved included singer/lyricist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Gary Driscoll of blues rock band Elf, and cellist Hugh McDowell of ELO. Satisfied with the two tracks, Blackmore decided to extend the sessions to a full album.[2]

The other members of Elf, keyboardist Micky Lee Soule and bassist Craig Gruber, were used for the recording of the album in Musicland Studios in Munich, West Germany during February and March, 1975. Though it was originally planned to be a solo album, the record was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and later progressed as a new band project. Blackmore and Dio did promotional work for the album. Shortly after the album was released, all Elf members (except Dio) were sacked and Blackmore recruited new musicians for subsequent Rainbow albums. This first line-up never performed live, and the live photos used in the album art are of Blackmore while with Deep Purple and of Elf playing live.

The last track of the album, "Still I'm Sad", is an instrumental cover of a song by The Yardbirds from their 1965 album Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds. A version featuring vocals subsequently appeared on Rainbow's live album On Stage.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Rolling Stone	(unfavorable)[4]
Sputnikmusic	[1]

The original vinyl release had a gate fold sleeve, although later budget reissues on Polydor reduced to a single sleeve. The album's songs have been performed by subsequent Rainbow line-ups.

The album was widely praised for its fantasy/heroic-like lyrical content and the innovative rock style.

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.

Vocalist Ronnie James Dio considered this release his favourite Rainbow album.[5]

Despite the title implying the record being a Ritchie Blackmore solo release, in later years Blackmore has jokingly stated that Dio's contributions warranted a re-titling of "Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio's Rainbow".[6]

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

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

Rainbow

• Ronnie James Dio – lead vocals
• Ritchie Blackmore – guitars
• Micky Lee Soule – piano, mellotron, clavinet, organ
• Craig Gruber – bass
• Gary Driscoll – drums

with

• Shoshana – backing vocals on "Catch the Rainbow" and "Still I'm Sad"

Production

• Produced by Ritchie Blackmore, Martin Birch, Ronnie James Dio
• Mixed by Martin Birch
• Recorded at Musicland Studios, Munich, West Germany, 20 February – 14 March 1975

Album

• Blackmore's Night have released a folk rock cover version of "Self Portrait" on their second studio album Under a Violet Moon in 1999, and "Temple of the King" on 2013's Dancer and the Moon. They also performed a live cover of "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" (titled as "16th Century Greensleeves") on their 2002 live album Past Times with Good Company.
• Bible Black, whose membership included Craig Gruber and Gary Driscoll, would occasionally cover "Man on the Silver Mountain" live. In 2011 Gruber's new band, ED3N (which also contained his Bible Black bandmate Jeff Fenholt) recorded a cover of "Man on the Silver Mountain" as a tribute to Dio and Driscoll.
• German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell covered the song "Still I'm Sad" on the tribute album Holy Dio: Tribute to Ronnie James Dio, which later appeared on his "best-of" The Wizard's Chosen Few. A cover of "The Temple of the King" appeared on his career compilation The Ballads III.
• Opeth played "Catch the Rainbow" live in concert as a tribute to the recently deceased Ronnie James Dio. Jack Starr's Burning Starr also recorded a version on their 2009 album Defiance, which was also featured on the Dio tribute album Magic: A Tribute to Ronnie James Dio.
• Spanish folk metal band Mägo de Oz covered "The Temple of the King" (albeit with different lyrics, in Spanish) as "El Templo del Adiós" on their 1998 album La Leyenda de la Mancha. Also, by Mägo de Oz, a cover of "Man on the Silver Mountain" is included in their compilation album Rarezas, though this album is somewhat unrecognised by the band itself due to some unresolved disagreements with the album's producer Locomotive Music.
• Swedish power metal band HammerFall covered "Man on the Silver Mountain". The song was collected in their album Masterpieces.
• German heavy metal band Angel Dust covered "The Temple of the King" on the tribute album Holy Dio: Tribute to Ronnie James Dio.
• Turkish singer Müslüm Gürses covered "The Temple of the King" on his 2006 cover album Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever.
• Rainbow included an updated version of "Still I'm Sad" (itself a cover of a 1965 The Yardbirds track from their album Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds) on their 1995 album Stranger in Us All.
• German rock group Scorpions covered "The Temple of the King" on the tribute album Ronnie James Dio - This Is Your Life.