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 sessions in Tampa Bay, Florida on 12 December 1974, Blackmore originally planned torecord the solo single "Black Sheep of the Family" with the newly composed B-side "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves". Other musicians involved included singer/lyricist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Gary Driscoll of blues rock band Elf, in addition to keyboardist Matthew Fisher formerly Procol Harum, and cellist Hugh McDowell of ELO. Satisfied with the two tracks, Blackmore decided to extend the sessions to a solo album.

For the album, other Elf members, keyboardist Micky Lee Soule and bassist Craig Gruber were utilised. The album was recorded in Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany in about 3 weeks during February-March 1975. Though it was originally thought to be a solo album, the record was billed as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and later progressed to a new band project. Blackmore and Dio did promotional work for the album. Shortly after the album was released, all Elf members excepting Dio were sacked, and Blackmore recruited new members 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 Elf playing live.

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 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.

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

Track listing

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

Side one
No.	Title	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	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. On the case insert and on the cassette itself, "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" is written as "Sixteen Century Greensleeves".

Personnel

Rainbow

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

with

• 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 rock 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".