Rainbow (also known as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow or Blackmore's Rainbow) were a British rock band led by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore from 1975 to 1984 and 1993 to 1997. They were originally established with American rock band Elf's members, but Blackmore fired all the members except Ronnie James Dio who would leave in 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. The band started out combining mystical lyric themes withneoclassical metal, but went in a more streamlined commercial style 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 albums worldwide and 4 million albums in the United States.
