Down to Earth

Sealed - Brand new limited edition 180 gram audiophile pressing  with a free download voucher.

Down to Earth is the fourth studio album by the British hard rock band Rainbow, released in 1979. It contains Rainbow's first hit single "Since You Been Gone",^[1] marking a more commercial direction of the band's sound.

The writing of Down to Earth began at Ritchie Blackmore's house in Connecticut in December 1978.^[2] By that time, the band leader had dismissed both bassist Bob Daisley and keyboard player David Stone soon after singer Ronnie James Dio quit the band.^[3] Blackmore had already recruited his old Deep Purple band mate Roger Glover as producer and started auditioning musicians for the vacant slots in the band, while songwriting progressed with the line-up of Blackmore, Cozy Powell and session musician Clive Chaman on bass.^[2] Almost all instrumental backing tracks were written by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. By the end of 1978, Blackmore had recruited keyboardist Don Airey, under suggestion from Powell, and also considered Ian Gillan and Peter Goalby of Trapeze as replacements for Dio.^[4] In April 1979, Jack Green of The Pretty Things was hired as new bass player for the recording sessions at Château Pelly de Cornfeld, in the countryside of Southern France, but he did not stay for long.^[4] Producer Glover ended up playing bass on the album and provided lyrics for all songs. While auditions for the new singer proceeded, Glover tracked down ex-The Marbles singer Graham Bonnet, who auditioned in France and was immediately hired.^[2]

During song composition, Bonnet made his vocal melodies though his contributions remained uncredited.^[5] His vocals were not recorded with the other tracks in France, but later at Kingdom Sound Studios in Long Island, when all other recording sessions were completed.^[2] Down to Earth is the only Rainbow album to feature Bonnet, though he was still part of the band when writing for Difficult to Cure began.