a l t . m u s i c . d i o

Was just checking on the great site Dio - The Early Years where in the mp3 section you can find tons of early songs Ronnie recorded before his Rainbow days.

But what I didn't know is that a couple of Ronnie's early 45s are now available on iTunes for download and purchase. Pretty cool. Hopefully more of his recordings from this era will become available on iTunes. The direct links are available on the early years main page.

You can also search iTunes for "Ronnie Dio" for the "Our Year" single or just "Dio" for the "Gonna Make It Alone" single. Each has two songs.

If you are not familiar with the songs from this time, with the earliest ones recorded when Ronnie was in his teens, you may be in for a surprise. These are initially 1950s-style Rock and Roll, and over the years represented, Ronnie begins to move toward a more "Hippy" type of sound.

These recordings show Ronnie's talent and also his way of evolving his style in his search for success in the music world. One of the coolest tracks on the Early Years mp3 page has to be the live ELF recording of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," with Ronnie singing a cover song from a band he would join some 8 years later and sing as a actual member of the band.