Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
Studio album by Rainbow
Released	August 4, 1975
Recorded	February 20 to March 14, 1975 Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	36:54
Label	Polydor
Producer	Ritchie Blackmore, Martin Birch, Ronnie James Dio
Rainbow chronology
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975) Rising (1976)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone	(unfavorable)

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (sometimes stylized Ritchie Blackmore's R-A-I-N-B-O-W) is the first album by English rock guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's solo band Rainbow, released in July 1975.

Two of the songs on the album were cover versions. "Black Sheep of the Family" was a cover of a song recorded by Quatermass, and "Still I'm Sad" was an instrumental cover of a Yardbirds track.

Production and release

During studio session in Tampa Bay, Florida on 12th December 1974, Blackmore originally planned for his solo single "Black Sheep of the Family" with the B-side "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves". Other musicians being involved in the early session included singer/lyricist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Gary Driscoll of the blues-rock band Elf, in addition to keyboardist Matthew Fisher of former Procol Harum, and cellist Hugh McDowell of ELO. Satisfied with the two tracks, Blackmore decided to make his solo album. For the new album, keyboardist and bassist were changed to another Elf members Micky Lee Soule and Craig Gruber as session musicians. The full album was recorded in Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany in about 3 weeks from February 1975. Though it was originally thought to be a solo album, the record was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, later progressed to be a new band project. Blackmore and Dio did promotional work for the album. Shortly after the album was released, former Elf members except Dio were at that point no longer members of Rainbow, and Blackmore recruited new players for subsequent Rainbow albums. This first line-up never performed live though the live-shots used in the album art are of Blackmore and Elf playing live.

The original vinyl release had a gate fold sleeve, although later reissues on the budget arms of Polydor reduced this to a single sleeve. 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 U.S. in April 1999. The European release followed later in the year.

Lead vocalist Ronnie James Dio called this his favourite Rainbow album.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Ronnie James Dio, all music composed by Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio, except where indicated..

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
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
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
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 – piano, mellotron, clavinet, organ
• Craig Gruber – bass
• Gary Driscoll – drums
• Shoshana – backing vocals

Production notes

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

Covers

• Blackmore's Night have released a folk rocking cover version of "Self Portrait" on their second studio album Under a Violet Moon in 1999. 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: A Tribute to the Voice of Metal Ronnie James Dio". 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.

• 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 unrecognized by the band itself due to some unresolved disagreements with the album's producer: Locomotive.

• Swedish power metal band HammerFall covered "Man on the Silver Mountain".