Rainbow

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Rainbow

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Biography

Rainbow is a name of, at least, three bands: 1) A UK band. 2) A group (레인보우) releasing in Japan. 3) A USA band.

1) A defunct UK band formed by “Deep Purple” founder and former guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in 1975. In addition to Blackmore, the band originally consisted of former “Elf” lead singer Ronnie James Dio, bassist Craig Gruber, drummer Gary Driscoll, and keyboardist Micky Lee Soule. Over the years Rainbow went through many lineup changes.

The Dio Years

The name of the band Rainbow was inspired by the “Rainbow Bar and Grill” that catered to rock stars, groupies and rock enthusiasts. It was here that Ritchie spent some of his off time from Deep Purple and met Dio, whose band Elf had toured regularly as an opening act for Deep Purple. Songfacts explains that Blackmore originally got together with Dio to record “Black Sheep Of The Family” as a single, and it turned out so well they needed a B Side, but when the B Side was recorded, it turned out to be even better. This led to them recording an album, and to the formation of Rainbow.

Rainbow’s debut album, “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow”, was released in 1975 and featured the minor hit “Man on the Silver Mountain”.

Rainbow’s music was different from Deep Purple’s. The music was more directly inspired by music and Dio wrote lyrics about medieval themes. Dio possessed a versatile vocal range capable to sing both hard rock and lighter ballads. Although Dio never played a musical instrument on any Rainbow album, he is credited with writing and arranging the music with Blackmore in addition to writing all the lyrics himself.
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