Ritchie Blackmore is known as a guitar legend and as one of the more mercurial figures in rock. The Rock N Roll Hall Of Famer rose to power with Deep Purple and unleashed some of the most classic, hard rock riffs on the world, including the simple and ever-present Smoke On The Water. But Ritchie was known to be aloof, distant from his bandmates and would often fly into critical rages about their performance. After the departure of Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, he was dissatisfied with the musical direction of the band. However, once he saw a diminutive American singer opening for Purple in a band called Elf, he started to devise a way out of DP.

That singer was Ronnie James Dio, the powerhouse lead vocalist who would eventually move on to replace Ozzy in Black Sabbath (and record two killer Sabbath albums, Heaven And Hell & Mob Rules) and fill arenas in the 80s with his own band, Dio. After recording what was supposed to be two sides of a single, Ritchie knew that Ronnie was his ticket out of Purple and onto his own project. So with his bandmates from Elf, they recorded Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow showcasing Ronnie and showing the world the Ritchie still had the goods.

Songs like Man on the Silver Mountain and Snakecharmer are built on the power of Ronnie's soaring vocals and Ritchie's heavy riffs. But songs like Catch The Rainbow show an almost proggy, fantasy side of the band as well as Temple of the King and Sixteenth Century Greensleaves.

Of course, before the first tour Ritchie fired or scared off the remaining members of Elf to replace them with Jimmy Bain and Cozy Powell which led to a triumphant Rising the next year. But to celebrate the real worldwide introduction of Ronnie James Dio (he appeared on albums with Elf but they received nowhere near the exposure of working with Blackmore) at 50, we reminisce on how we discovered Ronnie, Rainbow and it's legacy today.

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