Deep Purple are an English hard rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968. Together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath they are considered to be heavy metal/hard rock pioneers.

Deep Purple’s early output ranged from rock (such as their cover of Joe South’s “Hush”) to strongly classically influenced pieces (such as “April”, from their third album). Their first few albums contained very long solos, such as those on the band’s covers of “Hey Joe” and “I’m So Glad.”

After their third album, founding member and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in particular felt the band should move in a harder direction - and felt that then singer Rod Evans and bassist Nicky Simper were incapable of working in that direction. Both were therefore let go, and replaced with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover from Episode Six, producing what is now thought of as the classic Deep Purple lineup with keyboardist Jon Lord and ... read more »