RAINBOW – The Singles Box Set 1975–1986

Back in my youth, one of my very first album buys was ‘Rainbow Rising’ and to this day, I have no real knowledge of what tracks are on side one, side two however is another ball game completely as it only contained two tracks, the mighty ‘Stargazer’ and the nearly as good ‘A Light in the Black’. I played side two to death, and still to this day consider ‘Stargazer’ to be one of the greatest rock tracks, ever.
Over the years I bought nearly all of Rainbows releases, I have ‘Down To Earth’ on clear vinyl and caught them live on that very tour, however when the band split up in 1984 I moved onto Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe and all things American.
So I was a bit excited when asked if I could review Rainbow – ‘The Singles Box Set 1975 – 1986’, however here lie’s a problem. The box set retails at around £65.99, and no record label in the world is going to start sending those out for review. So what I got was a digital download link, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this format, and a lot of new releases are now distributed like this, however in this case, there is a 32 page booklet that accompanies this box set, which I do not have. So I cannot really delve too deeply into the how, why and reasons behind these singles. (The 32 page booklet features detailed annotations on each release and sleeve notes by Rainbow expert Andy Francis )
So what we have here is 19 remastered cd’s with the reproduction sleeves. They cover the entire Rainbow lifespan and give equal measure to the three Rainbow singers, Dio, Bonnett, and Turner.
They sound great, the production is sharp and the remastering delivers a fuller, wider soundscape.
Each singer takes Rainbow in a different direction and Blackmore plays all these variations with ease, from the Fantasy inspired era of the late great Dio, the hard rock inspired Bonnet years and then finally the more commercial sounding Turner years. Each one of these incarnations has delivered some cracking albums and the singles really just picked themselves. Across the 19 cd singles there are plenty of 7” edits, non-album tracks and live B-sides a lot of people will have forgotten about and will take great joy in discovering again.

CD 1
1 Man On The Silver Mountain (7″ Edit) 03:57
2 Snake Charmer 04:28

CD 2
1 Still I’m Sad 03:53
2 The Temple Of The King 04:43

CD 3
1 Man On The Silver Mountain (7″ Edit) 03:57
2 Snake Charmer 04:28
3 If You Don’t Like Rock N Roll 02:35
4 Sixteenth Century Greensleeves 03:35

CD 4
1 Starstruck (New York Mix) 04:06
2 Run With The Wolf 03:48

CD 5
1 Kill The King (Live / Edit) 04:41
2 Man On The Silver Mountain (Live) 05:08
3 Mistreated (Live / 7″ Edit) 07:15

CD 6
1 Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll 04:25
2 Sensitive To Light 03:08

CD 7
1 L.A. Connection (7″ Edit) 03:41
2 Lady Of The Lake 03:38

CD 8
1 Since You Been Gone 03:16
2 Bad Girl 04:48

CD 9
1 Since You Been Gone 03:16
2 No Time To Lose 03:41

CD 10
1 All Night Long 03:49
2 Weiss Heim 05:10

CD 11
1 I Surrender 03:22
2 Vielleicht Das NachsterMal (Maybe Next Time) 03:20

CD 12
1 Difficult To Cure 05:55
2 Can’t Happen Here (7″ Edit) 04:05
3 Jealous Lover 03:09

CD 13
1 Magic 04:05
2 Freedom Fighter 04:20

CD 14
1 Can’t Happen Here (7″ Edit) 04:05
2 Jealous Lover 03:09

CD 15
1 Stone Cold (Album Version) 05:17
2 Rock Fever 03:46

CD 16
1 Death Alley Driver 04:36
2 Tite Squeeze 03:15

CD 17
1 Street Of Dreams 04:24
2 Anybody There 02:37
3 Power (Live At The Convention Center, San Antonio) 04:27

CD 18
1 Can’t Let You Go (7″ Edit) 03:27
2 All Night Long (Live at David’s Hall, Cardiff, 1983) 05:24
3 Stranded (Live at St. David’s Hall,Cardiff, 1983) 04:16

CD 19
1 Bad Girl 04:48
2 Spotlight Kid (Live) 06:07
3 Man On The Silver Mountain 08:18

Unlike the excellent Gillan and Deep Purple singles box sets, this one has tracks repeated several times, and however good this collection is, diehard fans will already own a big chunk of what is on offer here. I would rather they release the entire 1980 Monsters Of Rock gig on CD, or the almost legendary ‘Live at St. David’s Hall’, Cardiff, 1983.

http://youtu.be/aH68-DxaKas