Significant longplayers from yesteryear

17 May 2026

Deep Purple‘s acclaimed guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (now aged 81) left
the band in 1975, formed his own, named RAINBOW, with Ronnie James Dio
on vocals, and released their debut LP almost immediately.

Blackmore: “I didn’t give a damn about song construction.
I just wanted to make as much noise and play as fast and as
loud as possible.”

On 17 May 1976, today 50 years ago, they had
their 2nd album out, called RAINBOW RISING.

The album featured only 6 tracks, including 2 epic compositions (Stargazer and A Light In The Black) on side 2, exceeding 8 minutes each. Although the tracks from this album have been performed live rarely, if at all, the song STARGAZER is widely regarded as a Rainbow classic and a landmark in heavy metal music.

AllMusic says in retrospect: “Blackmore replaced the entire band (except for Ronnie James Dio) immediately following the recording of the first album. The material is uniformly strong.
The playing has a very tight, colorful feel to it, which was lacking a bit on the first record. This album can legitimately be mentioned in the same breath as classic Deep Purple.”

ALBUM
(Track 1-6)

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