# Rainbow

> English musical group; rock band

**Wikidata**: [Q16005](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16005)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_(rock_band))  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/rainbow-q16005

## Summary

Rainbow is an organization founded in 1975 .

## Summary
Rainbow is an English rock band founded by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in 1975. The group is known for hard rock and traditional heavy metal styles and has been associated with neo-classical metal, power metal and album-oriented rock.

## Key Facts
- Founded (inception): 1975 (inception property: +1975-00-00T00:00:00Z).  
- Work period start: 1975 (work_period_start: +1975-00-00T00:00:00Z).  
- Instance / description: English musical group; rock band (wikidata_description).  
- Aliases: Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow; Blackmore's Rainbow.  
- Official website: https://www.ritchieblackmoresrainbow.com.  
- Wikipedia title: Rainbow (rock band).  
- Sitelink count: 46 (sitelink_count).  
- Primary genres associated in sources: hard rock; traditional heavy metal; power metal; neo-classical metal; album-oriented rock.  
- Founder / principal creator: Ritchie Blackmore (British guitarist; founded Rainbow in 1975).  
- Early and notable vocalists and members mentioned in sources: Ronnie James Dio (joined Rainbow in 1975; featured on the 1975 album Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow), Joe Lynn Turner, Doogie White, Ronnie Romero.  
- Notable rhythm-section and keyboard contributors mentioned: Cozy Powell (drummer; recorded with Rainbow including the 1984 album Bent Out of Shape), Jimmy Bain (Scottish bassist, 1947–2016), Jens Johansson (Swedish keyboardist), John Miceli (American drummer), Jack Green (Scottish musician).  
- Related musicians and later projects: Ritchie Blackmore later formed Blackmore's Night (1997) with Candice Night; Blackmore co-founded Deep Purple before forming Rainbow.  
- Related record-industry entities (listed in source relationships): Polydor (record label), Bertelsmann Music Group (record label / music company), Mercury Records (record label).  
- Related place / national context: United Kingdom (Rainbow is an English group); Hertford (county town of Hertfordshire, England) appears among related place entities in source material.  

## FAQs
Q: What is Rainbow?  
A: Rainbow is an English rock band formed by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in 1975. The group performs hard rock and related heavy metal styles and has operated under the names Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and Blackmore's Rainbow.

Q: Who founded Rainbow and when?  
A: Ritchie Blackmore founded Rainbow in 1975. Blackmore had previously co‑founded Deep Purple and formed Rainbow as a new project in the mid‑1970s.

Q: What musical styles and genres does Rainbow play?  
A: Sources associate Rainbow with hard rock and traditional heavy metal, and link the band to neo‑classical metal, power metal and album‑oriented rock influences.

Q: Who are some notable members or contributors?  
A: Notable persons mentioned in the sources include vocalists Ronnie James Dio (joined in 1975), Joe Lynn Turner, Doogie White, and Ronnie Romero; drummers Cozy Powell and John Miceli; bassist Jimmy Bain; keyboardist Jens Johansson; and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.

Q: What notable albums or recordings are linked to Rainbow in the source material?  
A: The 1975 album Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is associated with the band’s early period (Ronnie James Dio appears on it). Cozy Powell recorded with Rainbow on the 1984 album Bent Out of Shape as cited in the sources.

Q: What labels and industry relationships are connected to Rainbow in the sources?  
A: The supplied material lists Polydor, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), and Mercury Records as related record‑industry entities; the source does not assert specific contractual details but identifies those labels as related entities.

Q: Where can I find Rainbow online and under what names?  
A: The band's official site listed in the source is https://www.ritchieblackmoresrainbow.com. The band is also known by the aliases Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and Blackmore's Rainbow.

## Why It Matters
Rainbow occupies a significant position in the late‑1970s and 1980s rock and heavy‑metal landscape because it was founded by Ritchie Blackmore, a guitarist already influential from Deep Purple. The band served as a laboratory for blending hard rock with neoclassical and baroque influences, and for introducing vocal and lyrical styles that helped shape traditional heavy metal and related subgenres. Early collaborations — notably with Ronnie James Dio — produced landmark recordings that influenced vocal approaches and songwriting in metal. Rainbow also provides a throughline connecting major British rock acts, session musicians and international contributors (drummers, keyboardists, bassists and singers) across multiple eras. The group’s cross‑pollination with record companies and major labels (Polydor, BMG/Bertelsmann Music Group, Mercury) placed its releases within mainstream album‑oriented radio and the commercial music infrastructure of the period. For historians and listeners, Rainbow illustrates the evolution of hard rock into more classically informed and theatrically oriented metal styles and shows how line‑up changes fostered stylistic shifts over decades.

## Notable For
- Being founded in 1975 by Ritchie Blackmore, who had co‑founded Deep Purple and sought a new project blending rock with classical influences.  
- Early and influential collaboration with Ronnie James Dio on the 1975 Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow album, a recording cited in the sources.  
- Association with multiple heavy‑rock and metal subgenres in the source material: hard rock, traditional heavy metal, neo‑classical metal, power metal and album‑oriented rock.  
- Inclusion of prominent rock musicians across eras, such as drummers Cozy Powell and John Miceli, bassist Jimmy Bain, and singers Joe Lynn Turner, Doogie White and Ronnie Romero.  
- Appearing in the documented lineage of Ritchie Blackmore’s career, linking Deep Purple, Rainbow and later Blackmore’s Night.  
- Recognition in knowledge‑base metadata: aliases (Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow; Blackmore's Rainbow), official website, and a sitelink_count of 46 indicating wide coverage in linked sources.

## Body

### History and formation
- Founder: Ritchie Blackmore, a British guitarist who co‑founded Deep Purple and formed Rainbow in 1975. The band's official inception date recorded in the source material is 1975.  
- Early lineup and recordings: The 1975 album Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is cited in source material as an early release featuring Ronnie James Dio, who joined Rainbow in 1975. Subsequent early albums cited in related summaries under Blackmore include Rising (1976) and Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978), which are tied to Rainbow’s formative years in the mid‑ to late‑1970s.

### Genres and musical style
- Primary genre classification in the sources is rock (English musical group; rock band).  
- The band is associated with hard rock and traditional heavy metal, and the sources also link Rainbow to neo‑classical metal, power metal and album‑oriented rock as connected musical contexts or influences.

### Members, contributors and notable personnel
- Founder / leader: Ritchie Blackmore (British guitarist). The sources explicitly identify Blackmore as the founder and central figure.  
- Vocalists: Ronnie James Dio (American heavy metal singer; joined Rainbow in 1975 and appears on the 1975 Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow album), Joe Lynn Turner (American singer), Doogie White (Scottish singer), Ronnie Romero (Chilean singer).  
- Drummers and rhythm contributors: Cozy Powell (British drummer; recorded with Rainbow and is associated with the 1984 album Bent Out of Shape in source material), John Miceli (American drummer).  
- Bassists and lower register: Jimmy Bain (Scottish bassist, 1947–2016).  
- Keyboards and additional instrumentalists: Jens Johansson (Swedish keyboardist).  
- Other musicians listed in source relations: Jack Green (Scottish musician).  
- Later/progeny projects and relationships: After Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore formed Blackmore's Night with Candice Night in 1997; this is cited in the Blackmore‑centred material and maps the arc from hard rock/metal toward medieval folk rock in Blackmore’s later career.

### Discography highlights cited in sources
- Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975) — cited in association with Ronnie James Dio joining Rainbow in 1975.  
- Rising (1976) and Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978) — mentioned in the Ritchie Blackmore summary as key Rainbow albums.  
- Bent Out of Shape (1984) — Cozy Powell is cited as having recorded with Rainbow on this album in the source material.

### Record‑industry relationships and labels
- Related labels and companies named in the source material include Polydor (German‑British record label founded 1913; HQ London listed), Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG; American record‑label entity in the sources), and Mercury Records (American label founded 1945). The source lists these entities as related music‑industry organizations; it does not provide explicit contractual timelines between Rainbow and each label within the supplied text.

### Geographic and national context
- National origin: Rainbow is an English musical group (United Kingdom context).  
- Related place entity included in the source's relationships: Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England, appears among related place items in the source material.

### Metadata, identifiers and web presence
- Official website: https://www.ritchieblackmoresrainbow.com.  
- Aliases recorded in structured properties: Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow; Blackmore's Rainbow.  
- Knowledge‑base metadata supplied: sitelink_count = 46; wikipedia_title = "Rainbow (rock band)"; work_period_start = 1975; inception = +1975-00-00T00:00:00Z; wikidata_description = "English musical group; rock band."

### Related people and cross‑projects
- Ritchie Blackmore’s broader career is part of Rainbow’s context: Blackmore co‑founded Deep Purple (1968) and later formed Blackmore’s Night (1997) with Candice Night; these projects frame Rainbow within a larger creative trajectory described in the source material.  
- Ronnie James Dio’s career is another connective thread: he fronted Rainbow early on (joining in 1975), later fronted Black Sabbath and formed the band Dio; his time with Rainbow is identified as a pivotal early heavy‑metal role.  
- Cozy Powell’s session and band work links Rainbow to other major acts (Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell) as noted in the Cozy Powell summary.  
- Other personnel (Joe Lynn Turner, Doogie White, Jimmy Bain, Jens Johansson, John Miceli, Jack Green, Ronnie Romero) are cited as contributors, members or associated musicians in the source material, indicating Rainbow’s changing lineups and international collaborations across decades.

### Subsidiaries / contains (as listed)
- The source lists Jack Green and John Miceli under "Contains / Subsidiaries." In the context of a musical group, these names represent documented associated musicians or contributors in the supplied material.

### Summary of impact and continuity
- The supplied information presents Rainbow as a band formed by an already‑established guitarist (Ritchie Blackmore) that became a nexus for major singers, drummers and international instrumentalists, and that released recordings in the mid‑1970s through the 1980s which are cited as influential within hard rock and traditional heavy metal. The group is tied in the sources to wider label networks (Polydor, BMG, Mercury) and to related British rock history (Deep Purple, Blackmore’s Night). The metadata supplied (aliases, website, inception, sitelinks) supports straightforward identification of Rainbow in knowledge bases and public resources.

## References

1. Metal Evolution
2. BnF authorities
3. MusicBrainz
4. Integrated Authority File
5. Library of Congress Name Authority File
6. Virtual International Authority File
7. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013
8. Czech National Authority Database
9. Google Knowledge Graph
10. Discogs
11. YouTube API