The Very Best Of Rainbow

This " Very Best of Rainbow" is a rarity in the fact that they really do try to capture the very best of Rainbow!!! In general all " Greatest Hits", " Best of's" & so on seem to leave out a fan favorite or great song so your forced to buy one or two other C.D.'s to collect your favorites. This collection is a wonderful exception! Of course your not going to get all of Rainbows awesome music , but for a single C.D. I can hardly imagine collecting a more comprehensive collection of the decade spanning awesome Rock & Roll of Ritchie Blackmores " Rainbow"! Purchasing this C.D. along with a certain " Best of Deep Purple's" decade long career spanning collection will leave the listener with some of the most intense guitar hooks, riff's, signature openings, or solo's ever recorded!!! Even the liner notes included in this C.D. is valuable in that it has a Rock & Roll Family Tree tracing where these awesome musicians " Cut their Teeth" & which bands they were connected to...a true little school of Rock, if you will. This purchase is worth every penny & a must have in any serious Rock & Roll library...or music library period. Ritchie Blackmore is a Guitarist's Guitar player, standing along with Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Carlos Santana, Stevie Via & Bucket Head! He is a guitarist's national treasure! And this collection of music will not disappoint! I am certainly pleased to add this to my music collection & I really can't imagine anyone making this purchase being disappointed! Buy with confidence especially if you love good blues based hard rock & roll!!! My Grandchildren are gob smacked saying this is the Rock & Roll you grew up listening to? And then freaking out when I break out Krokus, Saxon, Judas Priest, Nazareth & the more melodious April Wine, Head East & pop friendly Cheap Trick & Dire Straights!!! Oh what a beautiful gift to pass on great music played on surround sound speakers 4 ft tall made of solid wood...a perfect blend of old school quality & new school technology!!! Ice Cream for the Ears!!!!

I've loved Richy Blackmore's Rainbow since I was a teen

I have to say this serves as a very good primer on Rainbow's first period. Every one of their studio albums is represented here, aside from Stranger In Us All. But I have to say, the progression from their beginnings to their disbandment prior to Deep Purple Mark II's reformation in the mid-80's wasn't a particularly good one. Admittedly, this comment has a lot to do with my personal tastes.Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio both had an interest in medieval music, and that is evident in the first half of this collection. It of course includes "Man On The Silver Mountain," which pops up occasionally on classic-rock radio and shares more than a passing resemblance to Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" in its main riff. "Catch The Rainbow" is a good showcase of Dio's tender side as a vocalist, while "Starstruck" and "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll" are great fist-pumping hard rock - demonstrating that Blackmore is still a rocker at heart in spite of his classical leanings. "Gates of Babylon" and "Stargazer" give an exotic feel to heavy rock, aided by Dio's fantasy imagery.And from here it starts to go downhill. "Since You've Been Gone" and "All Night Long" were Rainbow's first taste of chart success, but both have the feel of Deep Purple in its prime. Graham Bonnet adds a good dose of rock-n-roll grit in his vocal delivery, although the lyrics of "All Night Long" might make some of us cringe.Finally, we reach the final phase of Rainbow, with Joe Lynn Turner on the mic. Don't get me wrong, he's a great singer. He has plenty of range and great tone, but he lacks the grit of Bonnet, or the sheer power and conviction of Dio. Along with that, the arrangements he sings over are sleek and polished - and by comparison to the earlier material, almost completely emasculated. I can't help wondering how some of these tracks might have sounded had Bonnet stuck around, and I certainly can't imagine Dio singing them.But the common thread through all of these songs is Ritchie Blackmore's guitar work. While his rhythm playing with Deep Purple was often rudimentary and rarely inspiring, he came up with some good riffs throughout this collection. And many of his solos are quite inspired, although on the later work with Turner they are much shorter. It is somewhat fitting that he is the only member of the group to appear on the front cover (although the cover pic was apparently taken while he was with Deep Purple). His extended solo in "Stargazer" is a particular highlight here.Bottom line: it's a great career overview for the band, but depending on your particular tastes you probably won't enjoy the whole album.

Works great.

This is a terrific collection of Rainbow's greatest hits. This is Ritchie Blackmore post-Deep Purple and in great form.

I like classic rock music. I own over a hundred CDs, mostly classic rock. I generally listen to mostly classic rock. When I play music from cable TV stations, generally only a couple stations of classic rock or “rock hits”. I have my satellite radio buttons programmed to Classic Rewind, etc. As a last resort, when I “have to” listen to FM, I try to find classic rock stations.Overall, this is a very good album. About half the songs I really like, the other half are new or so-so, but this is typical for me, even for a “best of” or “greatest hits” collection. Before I bought this CD, I knew the popular hits, e.g. “Man on the Silver Mountain”, but I found some other songs that I like that I hadn’t really heard of, e.g. “Catch the Rainbow”. When I listen to this CD, I skip a few tracks, but really enjoy many of them, including a few “new” songs that I have added to my rotation.

Good music

Quien gusta de Rainbow, este recopilatorio lo va gozar de principio a fin..., lo mejor, temas de los tres cantantes principales: Dio, Graham Bonnet y Joe Lynn turner..., brutal!!!