Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
| Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cover art by David Willardson | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 August 1975 (US) 5 September 1975 (UK) | |||
| Recorded | 20 February – 14 March 1975 | |||
| Studio | Musicland (Munich) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 37:14 | |||
| Label | Oyster (UK) Polydor (rest of the world) | |||
| Producer | Ritchie Blackmore, Martin Birch, Ronnie James Dio | |||
| Rainbow chronology | ||||
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| Ronnie James Dio chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow | ||||
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Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is the debut studio album by British rock band Rainbow, released in August 1975 on the newly created Oyster record label.
The beginning of the musical project was the recording as a solo endeavour of the song "Black Sheep of the Family" by Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore with Elf singer Ronnie James Dio. The duo found a good chemistry and wrote more songs, which fused hard rock with classical and medieval music influences. So, when Blackmore left Deep Purple in March 1975, they had already recorded an album involving the other members of Elf in the recording sessions and decided to form a band.
The album had moderate commercial success and was well received by critics. However, Blackmore was not satisfied with the rehearsals for the tour supporting the release and quickly fired the musicians who had recorded the album, with the exception of Dio.