Deep Purple Singles A's & B's (1993){warner Wpcr 2115}

Although it shook the band's fan base to its core, the acrimonious departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover served to rejuvenate Deep Purple in time for 1973's aptly named Burn album, which unquestionably showed huge improvement over their lackluster previous effort, Who Do We Think We Are. And in an interesting twist rarely attempted before or since, new recruits David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass and vocals, ex-Trapeze) traded lead singing duties on virtually every one of its songs – an enviable tag team, as both possessed exceptional pipes….

Who Do We Think We Are is the seventh studio album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1973. It was Deep Purple's last album with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover until Perfect Strangers came out in 1984…

There has been no shortage of Deep Purple compilations over the years, but unlike some of the British hard rock legends' contemporaries (Sabbath, Zeppelin, etc.), they've managed a fairly consistent stream of output since their 1968 debut. Rhino's A Fire in the Sky, a 40-track career retrospective that includes at least one song from every studio album through 2013's Now What?!, is easily the most comprehensive anthology that the band has released to date – a more manageable, largely singles-oriented 20-track version is also available, as is a triple-vinyl edition. Despite cycling through too many lineup iterations to mention, the band has consistently adhered to the heavy blues-rock foundation that made career highlights like "Hush," "Smoke on the Water," "Highway Star," and "Woman from Tokyo" so essential.

After satisfying all of their classical music kinks with keyboard player Jon Lord's overblown Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Deep Purple's soon to be classic Mark II version made its proper debut and established the sonic blueprint that would immortalize this lineup of the band on 1970's awesome In Rock…

One of Deep Purple's four indispensable albums (the others being In Rock, Machine Head, and Burn), 1971's Fireball saw the band broadening out from the no-holds-barred hard rock direction of the previous year's cacophonous In Rock…

This live recording, made in 1975, comes from Ritchie Blackmore's last three concerts with the band before leaving to form Rainbow. It features Deep Purple Mark III, with David Coverdale on vocals and Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals…

One of Deep Purple's four indispensable albums (the others being In Rock, Machine Head, and Burn), 1971's Fireball saw the band broadening out from the no-holds-barred hard rock direction of the previous year's cacophonous In Rock. Metal machine noises introduced the sizzling title track – an unusually compact but explosively tight group effort on which Jon Lord's organ truly shined…

When Ritchie Blackmore departed Deep Purple in the mid-'70s and formed Rainbow (which featured Ronnie James Dio), his replacement was Tommy Bolin. To be sure, Blackmore was a darn tough act to follow, but Bolin proved himself to be a fine guitarist in his own right on Come Taste the Band, his first album with Deep Purple…