Best songs featuring Ronnie James Dio
In light of the recent death Ronnie James Dio, I've decided to chime in and list my top 10 songs of his. The list below is based on all his work with Rainbow and Black Sabbath and three of his solo albums. Here goes.
10. Lady of the Lake (on Rainbow's "Long Live Rock N' Roll")
9. Man on the Silver Mountain (on Rainbow's "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow")
8. Night Music (on Dio's "Lock up the Wolves")
7. Mystery (on Dio's "Last in Line")
6. Kill the King (on Rainbow's "Long Live Rock N' Roll")
5. Country Girl
4. Evil Eyes (on Dio's "Last in Line")
3. Falling Off the Edge of the World
2. Stargazer
1. Neon Knights
Some comments:
Neon Knights has long been one of my all-time favorite Sabbath songs. I even have a couple of covers of it (Iron Savior and Queensryche). The song flat out rocks, and in several ways illustrates that in music, simple can be quite effective.
The other two Black Sabbath entries both reside on "Mob Rules", though neither of them are the title track. It seems like several people think the title track's the best one on that disc, while I would argue that the rest of the songs are better (E5150 doesn't count as a song). Some acknowledge "Falling Off the Edge of the World" as the treat it is, but hardly any speak of "Country Girl", which is a really fun song to play.
On the Rainbow side, the epic, fantasy-tinged "Stargazer" is the highlight. Lyrics generally don't make or break a song for me (unless it's a silly song), but this song does have good lyrics that compliment the music nicely. "Kill the King" is probably the song I have the most versions of, as it's been covered by the likes of Grave Digger, Stratovarius and Primal Fear. Of those covers, the best is hands-down Stratovarius', which I think I like even better than the original.
As for Dio's solo stuff, nothing off "Holy Diver" made the list. It is a good CD, but to me doesn't have any tracks that are utterly bad ass. My favorite is probably "Invisible", which barely missed out, though "Gypsy", "Caught in the Middle" and "Rainbow in the Dark" are good as well. "Evil Eyes" is a song that Dio makes work quite well, and it seems like few others could. Talk about a song channeling lots of energy, yet retaining melody!
10. Lady of the Lake (on Rainbow's "Long Live Rock N' Roll")
9. Man on the Silver Mountain (on Rainbow's "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow")
8. Night Music (on Dio's "Lock up the Wolves")
7. Mystery (on Dio's "Last in Line")
6. Kill the King (on Rainbow's "Long Live Rock N' Roll")
5. Country Girl
4. Evil Eyes (on Dio's "Last in Line")
3. Falling Off the Edge of the World
2. Stargazer
1. Neon Knights
Some comments:
Neon Knights has long been one of my all-time favorite Sabbath songs. I even have a couple of covers of it (Iron Savior and Queensryche). The song flat out rocks, and in several ways illustrates that in music, simple can be quite effective.
The other two Black Sabbath entries both reside on "Mob Rules", though neither of them are the title track. It seems like several people think the title track's the best one on that disc, while I would argue that the rest of the songs are better (E5150 doesn't count as a song). Some acknowledge "Falling Off the Edge of the World" as the treat it is, but hardly any speak of "Country Girl", which is a really fun song to play.
On the Rainbow side, the epic, fantasy-tinged "Stargazer" is the highlight. Lyrics generally don't make or break a song for me (unless it's a silly song), but this song does have good lyrics that compliment the music nicely. "Kill the King" is probably the song I have the most versions of, as it's been covered by the likes of Grave Digger, Stratovarius and Primal Fear. Of those covers, the best is hands-down Stratovarius', which I think I like even better than the original.
As for Dio's solo stuff, nothing off "Holy Diver" made the list. It is a good CD, but to me doesn't have any tracks that are utterly bad ass. My favorite is probably "Invisible", which barely missed out, though "Gypsy", "Caught in the Middle" and "Rainbow in the Dark" are good as well. "Evil Eyes" is a song that Dio makes work quite well, and it seems like few others could. Talk about a song channeling lots of energy, yet retaining melody!