Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore's Hard Rock Band and "Can't Happen Here"

Photo: Helge Øverås / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rainbow_in_performance_(27_09_1977_02_500b).jpg

Rainbow, also known as Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, were a British hard rock band formed in Hertford in 1975 by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore after he left Deep Purple. U-Rock® has logged 3,794 plays of their song "Can't Happen Here."

The singers

According to Wikipedia, the first line-up used four members of the American band Elf, including singer Ronnie James Dio. Dio sang on Rising (1976) and Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978), then left to join Black Sabbath. Graham Bonnet sang on Down to Earth and its breakthrough single "Since You Been Gone." Joe Lynn Turner then fronted Difficult to Cure (1981), Straight Between the Eyes (1982) and Bent Out of Shape (1983), as the band moved towards a more radio-friendly sound.

"Can't Happen Here"

"Can't Happen Here" comes from the Turner era. Wikipedia notes that its B-side, "Jealous Lover," got so much US rock radio play that it became the title track of an EP. Difficult to Cure was the band's highest-charting UK album, reaching No. 3. Blackmore broke the band up in 1984 to rejoin Deep Purple, revived it in 1993 and 2016, and toured Europe with it until 2019. Rainbow have sold more than 28 million records. The photo here shows Dio and Blackmore in Oslo in 1977.

Why it matters on U-Rock®

Rainbow made mystical hard rock and heavy metal with Dio, then moved to big radio rock. "Can't Happen Here" is from that later period.

U-Rock® play data: 3,794 plays logged across the BROADCAST and CORE histories (2026-07-02 to 2026-10-12), using the higher of the two logs.

Sources 1. Wikipedia, "Rainbow (rock band)" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_(rock_band) 2. Wikipedia, "Difficult to Cure" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difficult_to_Cure 3. Wikimedia Commons, "Rainbow in performance (Helge Øverås, Oslo 1977)" — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rainbow_in_performance_(27_09_1977_02_500b).jpg 4. U-Rock® BROADCAST (AzuraCast) and CORE (airplay_spins) play logs