Ronnie Dio And The Prophets - The Early Years [320k MP3]

Dio's musical career began in 1957 when several Cortland, New York musicians formed the band, The Vegas Kings. The group's lineup consisted of Dio on bass guitar, Billy DeWolfe on lead vocals, Nick Pantas on guitar, Tom Rogers on drums, and Jack Musci on saxophone.

In 1958, the band again changed their name from Ronnie & The Rumblers to Ronnie and the Redcaps. Musci left the band in 1960, and a new guitarist, Dick Botoff, joined the lineup. The Redcaps released two singles: The first single was "Conquest"/"Lover" with the A-side being an instrumental reminiscent of The Ventures and the B-side featuring DeWolfe on lead vocals. The second single was "An Angel Is Missing"/"What'd I Say" which featured Dio on lead vocals for both tracks.

Explanations vary for how Padavona adopted the stage name "Dio". One story is that Dio was a reference to mafia member Johnny Dio.[10] Another has it that Padavona's grandmother said he had a gift from God and should be called "Dio". Whatever the inspiration, Padavona first used it on a recording in 1960, when he added it to the band's second release on Seneca. Soon after that the band modified their name to Ronnie Dio and the Prophets. The Prophets lineup lasted for several years, touring throughout the New York region and playing college fraternity parties. They produced one single for Atlantic[11] and one album. Some of the singles (such as "Mr. Misery", released on Swan) were labeled as being by Ronnie Dio as a solo artist even if the rest of the Prophets contributed to the recording. The group released several singles during the following years, until early 1967. Dio continued to use his birth name on any songwriting credits on those releases.

In late 1967 Ronnie Dio and the Prophets transformed into a new band called The Electric Elves and added a keyboard player. Following recovery from a deadly car accident in February 1968 (which killed guitarist Nick Pantas and put Dio and other band members in the hospital briefly), the group shortened its name to The Elves and used that name until mid 1972 when it released its first proper album under the name Elf. Over the next few years, the group went on to become a regular opening act for Deep Purple. Elf recorded three albums until the members' involvement recording the first Rainbow album in early 1975 resulted in Elf disbanding.



Track Listing [320k MP3]
01 An Angel Is Missing with Red Caps
02 What’d I Say
03 Dear Darlin’
04 Follow Me
05 Blue Days Blue Nights
06 I Told You So
07 Everybody’s Got A Dance To Do But Me
08 Make Johnny Blue
09 Love Pains Early Version
10 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
11 Love Potion #9 Prev. Unrel.
12 Gonna Make It Alone
13 Swingin’ Street
14 The Way Of Love
15 Walking Alone
16 Smile By Day (Crying By Night)
17 Say Your Mine Again
18 Where You Gonna Run Girl
19 Walking In Different Circles
20 Ten Days With Brenda
21 Love Pains
22 The Ooh-Poo-Pah-Doo
23 Mr. Misery
24 Our Year
25 Che Tris Teza Senza Te
26 Judy’s Theme Prev. Unrel.
27 That’s All Prev. Unrel.
28 Fallin’ Prev. Unrel.