''The Last In Line'' is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Dio, released on July 2, 1984. It is the first Dio album to feature former

Rough Cutt Rough Cutt is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles who released two studio albums on Warner Bros. Records in the mid-1980s. Rough Cutt never achieved the commercial success enjoyed by many other Los Angeles bands of that time but vari ...

keyboardist

Claude Schnell Claude Schnell (born May 17, 1955) is an American keyboardist who has been a member of the bands Magic, Rough Cutt, Dio, and Last in Line. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in France, when he was six years old his family mo ...

. It became the band's highest-charting album in both the UK and the U.S., reaching number 4 and number 23, respectively (''

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...

'' would later reach number 4 in the UK as well). It was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

(500,000 units sold) by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

on September 12, 1984, and was the first Dio album to be certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

, achieving the feat on February 3, 1987. In the UK, it attained Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in January 1986, at the same time as ''

Holy Diver ''Holy Diver'' is the debut studio album by the American heavy metal band Dio, released in 1983. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio had just finished his first tenure in Black Sabbath, whose drummer, Vinny Appice, he took with him to put together his ...

''. To date, these are the only two Dio albums to be certified at least platinum.

Reissues

The album, along with ''

'' and ''

'', was released in a new two-CD deluxe edition on March 19, 2012 through

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

for worldwide distribution outside the U.S.

Critical reception

In 2005, ''The Last In Line'' was ranked number 372 in ''

Rock Hard "Rock Hard" is a single by the Beastie Boys, released by Def Jam Records on 12" in 1984. The track contains samples from the AC/DC song "Back in Black", which was used without obtaining legal permission, causing the record to be withdraw ...

'' magazine's book of ''The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time''.

Track listing

Personnel

;Dio *

Ronnie James Dio Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010), known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted and founded numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and H ...

– vocals, keyboards *

Vinny Appice Vincent Samson Appice (born September 13, 1957) is an American rock drummer best known for his work with the bands Dio, Black Sabbath, and Heaven & Hell. Of Italian descent, he is the younger brother of drummer Carmine Appice. Career Appice ...

– drums *

Jimmy Bain James Stewart Bain (19 December 1947 – 23 January 2016) was a Scottish musician, best known for playing bass guitar in the bands Rainbow and Dio. He also worked with Kate Bush and Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, co-writing on his solo ...

– bass *

Vivian Campbell Vivian Patrick Campbell (born 25 August 1962) is a Northern Irish guitarist. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as a member of Dio (band), Dio, and has been a member of Def Leppard since 1992 (replacing Steve Clark after his death). Camp ...

– guitar *

– keyboards ;Production * Recorded at Caribou Ranch,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

* Produced by

* Engineered by Angelo Arcuri * Assistant engineering by Rich Markowitz * Mixed on Westlake Audio BBSM6 monitors * Originally mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound, New York * Remastered by Andy Pearce (2012 Universal Deluxe Edition) * Remastered by Steve Hoffman (2012 Audio Fidelity 24K edition) * Illustration by Barry Jackson

Charts

Album

Singles

Mystery We Rock The Last in Line

Certifications

References

External links

''The Last in Line'' song lyrics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last in Line, The 1984 albums Dio (band) albums Vertigo Records albums Warner Records albums