| The Best of Rainbow | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover design by Hipgnosis | ||||
| Greatest hits album by | ||||
| Released | November 1981 | |||
| Recorded | 1975–1981 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 82:11 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer | Martin Birch, Roger Glover | |||
| Rainbow compilation albums chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
The Best of Rainbow is the first compilation album from British hard rock group Rainbow, released in 1981.
Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. It is typified by a heavy use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often accompanied with keyboards.
Rainbow are a British rock band led by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, active from 1975 until 1984, 1993 until 1997, and 2015 until present. They were originally established with Ronnie James Dio's American rock band Elf, but after their first album, Blackmore fired the backing members and continued with Dio until 1979.
Contents
This compilation album is slightly different from the similarly titled album from 1980, which was released only in Japan, [2] and features mostly previously-released studio cuts, taken from the five studio albums Rainbow had released at that point. However, "Jealous Lover", the first song written by Blackmore and Turner, had been available only as a B-side in Europe (to "Can't Happen Here") and on the Jealous Lover EP in the United States.
Jealous Lover is a four track, 12" EP released by the British hard rock band Rainbow in the USA in 1981. The EP reached No. 147 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart. Tracks include two songs previously unavailable in the US, and two songs from their full-length album Difficult to Cure of the same year. The cover art featured the same Hipgnosis photography used for the album, with a different background.
The original vinyl-release was a 2-LP set, in a gatefold-sleeve which contained photos of the band during its various incarnations, and reached No. 14 in the UK Albums Chart in 1981. [3] As of 2019, this compilation album has never been released in the United States.
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays. It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and published in Music Week magazine, and on the OCC website.
The photograph on the cover was taken at Zaanse Schans.
Zaanse Schans is a neighbourhood of Zaandam, near Zaandijk, Netherlands. It is best known for its collection of well-preserved historic windmills and houses. From 1961 to 1974 old buildings from all over the Zaanstreek were relocated using lowboy trailers to the area. The Zaans Museum, established in 1994 near the first Zaanse Schans windmill, is located south of the neighbourhood.
