Although Ritchie Blackmore is often remembered as one of the greatest Hard Rock guitarists of all time, he has a very broad musical taste and is also a fan of Pop music, particularly from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has praised several groups from that era, some of which fans might never imagine he listens to. He once named the two Pop bands he considers the greatest of all time.
The 2 biggest Pop bands of all time according to Ritchie Blackmore
ABBA
One of the bands that Blackmore loves and mentioned as one of the biggest Pop bands of all time is ABBA. During the first years of Rainbow he actually discovered that the rest of the band also loved the Swedish group. ”It was funny, because (in) 1976, 1977, we (Rainbow) were in a French Chateau. We were all sitting around the fire and it was about four in the morning, the place was very haunted by Chopin, that’s another story. But Cozy (Powell) suddenly turned up and said ‘You know, who my favorite band is? It’s ABBA’ and we went: ‘Ooooh! ABBA?’ He’s like ‘Yeah, I know, I know… But that’s my favorite band’”.
“Then I said: ‘And mine’ (laughs). Then the bass player went ‘And mine’ and we were suddenly all (saying) ‘Let’s play some ABBA!’ Cozy ran out of the room and came back with this cassette, put on ABBA and we sat there listening to ABBA for four hours by the fire, these Hard Rock guys that (acted like) ‘No, we got to play Hard Rock’. I’m not sure what Ronnie (James Dio) thought of then. I think he was a bit perplexed,” Ritchie Blackmore said in an interview on Rainbow’s channel (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). During a session of questions and answers with fans a couple of years ago, the guitarist even said that ABBA is probably his favorite band of all time.
He said:
“I think ABBA was the best band. I always listened to ABBA when I was (younger). It was so melodic, and it just worked. It was fantastic. And they are probably my favorite band of all time. And I know it’s uncool to say that in certain areas. (But) they were wonderful,” he said.
Formed in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, ABBA is one of the most influential and successful bands of all time. They have sold an estimated 400 million records worldwide, much more than bands like The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Blackmore once recalled that it was very uncool to like ABBA back in the ’70s, but he loved them.
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson were the band’s main songwriters, with Björn also playing guitar and Benny playing keyboards, synthesizers, piano and accordion. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad focused on lead and backing vocals.
The Beatles
“ABBA are probably the biggest pop band of all time after the Beatles,” Blackmore told Eclipsed in 2018. He never had the chance to perform with the band, but he did share the stage with George Harrison during a Deep Purple show in Australia in 1984. The Beatle lived near Jon Lord and Ian Paice and became good friends with them. When their schedules aligned in Sydney, Harrison decided to go see Deep Purple play and joined them onstage to perform a cover of Little Richard’s “Lucille”.
“I did play with George Harrison, he wanted me to join The Beatles. I’d never heard of them and I knew they were going nowhere. So I said no, absolutely not,” he joked. “But the truth is he was friends with Jon Lord and Ian Paice. He lived just down the road in Henley, I think it was. He was over in Australia when we were there as Deep Purple and he said to me, very politely, ‘Can I get up on stage with you and use your guitar?”
Ritchie Blackmore continued:
“I said: ‘Of course!’ I was flattered! Sure enough we all got up on stage and we did the old Rock and Roll number… (plays his acoustic guitar to remember which song it was). It was ‘Lucille’ by Little Richard, not played as badly as that. We had a good time, he was a very nice man. Very serious and very complimentary. It was very overwhelming to play with a Beatle.”
“I mean, there will never be another band like The Beatles. (They) early stuff, I absolutely love, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘From Me To You’, that stuff, these simple melodies were fantastic. George was very modest, a very quiet man. I noticed when we were on stage that he had big feet. Because he was tapping out the rhythm and I did look down at one point and I thought ‘My God, he has big feet’. George was great,” Ritchie Blackmore said on his Youtube channel (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Harrison also enjoyed the experience, although he felt the band wasn’t in sync while playing with him. “They’re my neighbors, two of them, Jon (Lord) and Ian (Paice). They live near me. I’ve known them now for probably 8, 9 years. Yet they were so famous in the 70s, I got to know them in the period after they broke up before they reformed. So I never knew their music. I mean, I heard this one thing about ‘Smoke On The Water’ or something like that. I’ve actually never seen them and I heard that they are in the Guinness Book Of Records for being the loudest group in the world.”
George Harrison continued:
“So I thought, well, I was in Australia at the time and they happened to be doing a concert in Sydney. So I thought I’d go and check them out. Get my earplugs and go and see them. I really enjoyed the show. I sat on the stage for part of the show behind the loudspeakers. Then I walked down and sat right in the center of the hall. It was not too loud. It was really funny. I liked it.”
“I thought Ian, who is my neighbor, Ian Paice, he is such a good drummer and Jon Lord, rocking his organ (laughs). Ian Gillan, I thought he is just a scream, he is really funny. I enjoyed it. They said ‘Hey! Here’s a guitar, come on!’ So I just went on and sang, I don’t know what it was. I was playing the wrong key. But it didn’t seem to matter,” George Harrison said in an interview with Warner Brothers Music (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).