Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow by Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow came out on Polydor on 4 August 1975 in the States, and it's the sound of a guitar hero slipping his leash. It started as a solo lark: Blackmore, still in Deep Purple, cut "Black Sheep of the Family" with Elf's singer Ronnie James Dio, the two of them clicked, and the songs kept coming. By the time Blackmore walked out on Purple in March 1975, the pair had an album in the can, with the rest of Elf filling out the sessions, and a band was born.

Blackmore produced it himself, and the brew is heady: hard-rock thunder shot through with classical and medieval flourishes, Dio's mystical lyrics soaring over the top, and "Man on the Silver Mountain" leading the charge. It did moderate business and the critics dug it, but Blackmore wasn't one for sentiment. Unhappy with the tour rehearsals, he sacked everybody but Dio before the ink was dry.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.