''Difficult to Cure'' is the fifth studio album by the British

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

, released in 1981. The album marked the further commercialization of the band's sound, with

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guitar ...

once describing at the time his appreciation of the band Foreigner. It became the band's highest-charting album on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, where it peaked at number three.

Recording

The album material was started with singer

Graham Bonnet Graham Bonnet (born 23 December 1947) is an English rock singer. He has recorded and performed as a solo artist and as a member of several hard rock and heavy metal bands including Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Alcatrazz, and Impellitteri.Pr ...

still in the band, getting as far as recording an early version of " I Surrender", before Bonnet left the band due to his dissatisfaction over the material, and numerous fallouts with Blackmore. American singer

Joe Lynn Turner Joe Lynn Turner (born Joseph Arthur Mark Linquito, August 2, 1951) is an American singer known for his work in the hard rock bands Rainbow, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Deep Purple. During his career, Turner fronted and played guitar with pop ro ...

, formerly of

Fandango Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has ...

was recruited and sang over already completed musical tracks. Turner stated that, because of this, he was singing in higher keys than he would do normally (and would do subsequently).

Release

The album's cover (designed by

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10cc, Ba ...

) had originally been proposed for use on

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

's 1978 release ''

Never Say Die! ''Never Say Die!'' is the eighth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released on 29 September 1978. It was the last studio album with the band's original lineup and the last studio album to feature original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne u ...

''. "I Surrender" would be the band's highest charting single in the UK, reaching No. 3. The original 1981 LP and cassette releases had the title of the fifth track as "Vielleicht Das Nachster Zeit (Maybe Next Time)". This was a mis-translation from the German, which was corrected on later releases. However, the "corrected" version still is not perfectly grammatical, as the correct German for "Maybe Next Time" is "Vielleicht nächstes Mal". The laughter at the end of the last track is a sample of

Oliver Hardy Oliver Norvell Hardy (born Norvell Hardy; January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy, the double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted from 1926 to 1957. He appeared with his c ...

. On the original LP, the laughter is an endless loop as it plays in the run-out groove, while on CD it loops a few times before fading out. A remastered CD reissue was released in May 1999, with packaging duplicating the original vinyl release.

Track listing

Personnel

;Rainbow *

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Don Airey Donald Smith Airey (born 21 June 1948) is an English musician who has been the keyboardist in the rock band Deep Purple since 2002, after the retirement of Jon Lord. He has had a long and productive career, playing with such acts as Gary Moore ...

–

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Ro ...

– bass, producer * Bob Rondinelli –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

–

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

backup vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

;Production *

Flemming Rasmussen Flemming Rasmussen (born 1 January 1958) is a Danish sound engineer, record producer, and owner and founder of Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. Rasmussen is currently main engineer/producer at Sweet Silence North in Helsingør. Biog ...

– engineer *Thomas Brekling, Clay Hutchinson – assistant engineers *Greg Calbi – mastering

Charts

;Album ;Singles

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Rainbow (rock band) albums 1981 albums Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis Polydor Records albums Albums produced by Roger Glover