RAINBOW – THE BEST OF RAINBOW 2LP – Nr MINT UK 1980 DEEP PURPLE BLACKMORE

The Best Of Rainbow
(Polydor Records  1980  PODV2)
Matrix No’s:A2/B1/A1/B2 – UK Pressing

Gatefold Sleeve in Excellent condition
– looks great but does have discolouration marking along bottom

Double Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Rainbow (also known as Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow or Blackmore’s Rainbow) are a British rock band led by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, active from 1975 to 1984, from 1993 to 1997, and from 2015 to the present. They were originally established with Ronnie James Dio’s American rock band Elf, but after their first album, Blackmore fired the backing members and continued with Dio until 1979. Three British musicians joined in 1979, singer Graham Bonnet, keyboardist Don Airey, former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover, and this line-up gave the band their commercial breakthrough with the single “Since You Been Gone”. Over the years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up. Other lead singers Joe Lynn Turner and Doogie White would follow, and the project consisted of numerous backing musicians. A pioneer to power metal, the band’s early work primarily featured mystical lyrics with a neoclassical metal style, but went in a more streamlined, commercial direction following Dio’s departure from the group.

Rainbow were ranked No. 90 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. The band has sold over 28 million records worldwide.

The Best of Rainbow is a compilation album from British hard rock group Rainbow, released in 1981.

It was the first official compilation and featured only previously released studio cuts, taken from the five studio LPs released at that point. However, “Jealous Lover”, the first song written by Blackmore and Turner, had been available only as a B-side in Europe (to “Can’t Happen Here”) and on the Jealous Lover EP in the USA.

The original vinyl-release was a 2LP set, in a gatefold-sleeve.

Tracklist

Personnel
•    Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
•    Ronnie James Dio – Vocals
•    Graham Bonnet – Vocals
•    Joe Lynn Turner – Vocals
•    Micky Lee Soule – Keyboards
•    Tony Carey – Keyboards
•    David Stone – Keyboards
•    Don Airey – Keyboards
•    Craig Gruber – Bass
•    Jimmy Bain – Bass
•    Bob Daisley – Bass
•    Roger Glover – Bass
•    Gary Driscoll – Drums
•    Cozy Powell – Drums
•    Bobby Rondinelli – Drums