Rainbow

Led by legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, Rainbow is a British hard rock band that had nine consecutive Top 20 albums in the UK between 1975 and 1983. ∙ After leaving Deep Purple, Blackmore originally asked Ronnie James Dio and other members of Elf to back him on a solo single, but he was so taken with the results that he formed Rainbow with them. ∙ Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, the band’s 1975 debut, won acclaim for its Baroque-influenced hard rock, and it reached No. 11 in the UK and No. 30 on the Billboard 200. ∙ Rising, their 1976 LP, was ranked among Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. ∙ The band’s 1979 cover of Russ Ballard’s “Since You Been Gone,” featuring new lead singer Graham Bonnet, was the first Rainbow single to reach the UK Top 10. ∙ “Street of Dreams,” featuring lead singer Joe Lynn Turner, received massive radio and MTV airplay in the US in 1983, thanks in part to its surreal video. ∙ Metallica, Opeth, and Dream Theater are among the many bands who have cited Rainbow as a major influence.