Fireball (album)
Fireball is the fifth album by English rock band Deep Purple, released in 1971 and the second with the Mk II line-up. It was recorded at various times between September 1970 and June 1971. It became the first of the band's two UK No. 1 albums, though it did not stay on the charts as long as its predecessor, Deep Purple In Rock.
Chart performance
Fireball reached the No. 1 position on the UK albums chart, while also hitting No. 1 in several other European countries. In North America, it outperformed its predecessor, In Rock, reaching No. 32 in the US and No. 24 in Canada.Singles
The original UK version had "Demon's Eye" as its third track, but did not include "Strange Kind of Woman", which was instead released as a single there. It was vice versa on the US, Canada and Japanese releases. The boogie-inspired "Strange Kind of Woman" single reached No. 8 in the UK. "Fireball", the album's title track, was also released as a single and reached No. 15 in the UK."Strange Kind of Woman" has been a staple of the live set up to the present day, and "Fireball" also made a few live appearances, mainly as an encore. "Strange Kind of Woman" and "The Mule" appear on the 1972 live album Made in Japan, with the latter morphing into an Ian Paice drum solo.
"Anyone's Daughter" was played on the 1993–1994 tours, while "Fools", "No One Came", "I'm Alone", "Demon's Eye" and "No No No" have all made periodic appearances in various tours since 1996.
Releases and reissues
The original vinyl release was in a gatefold sleeve, with a generic Harvest LP-bag and a lyric-insert.In September 2010, a limited edition 24k gold CD was released by Audio Fidelity. The CD was mastered from the original master tapes by Steve Hoffman. The gold CD contained the original USA track listing with "Strange Kind of Woman" and does not have "Demon's Eye".
Members' views on the album
Most of the band do not consider the album a classic, although it is one of Ian Gillan's favourites. He stated in a 1974 interview: "The reason I liked that so much was because I thought, from a writing point of view, it was really the beginning of tremendous possibilities of expression. And some of the tracks on that album are really, really inventive." However, Gillan also said that the inclusion of "Anyone's Daughter" on the album was "a good bit of fun, but a mistake."Ritchie Blackmore, in particular, stated publicly that he was not overly pleased with Fireball. He said of the production: "That was a bit of a disaster, because it was thrown together in the studio. Managerial pressure, we had no time. 'You gotta play here, here, there, then you've got to make an LP.' I told them, 'if you want an LP, you've got to give us time.' But they wouldn't. I just threw ideas to the group that I thought up on the spur of the moment."
Jon Lord stated that Fireball "wanders slightly" and "goes to places that the band wasn't expecting it to go to." Lord did praise several songs on the album, including "No No No" and "Fools", and particularly singled out Ian Paice's drumming on the title track.
Later influences
On 9 April 2011 episode of That Metal Show, guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen stated that his older sister had given him Fireball when he was eight years old, and "it changed everything" for him. Similarly, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich stated that he purchased a copy of Fireball within 12 hours after his father had taken him to a 1973 Deep Purple concert in Copenhagen, and he credits the concert and album for sparking his interest in hard rock music.Likewise, Michael Monroe stated on Eddie Trunk's podcast that it was the first album he ever bought, and one of the first he ever heard along with Led Zeppelin II, and was a major influence to get him into a career in rock and roll.
King Diamond also mentions Fireball as the first studio album he purchased as a teenager and an important influence in his future career.
Track listings
All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice.Original European release
;Side one;Side two
Original US/Canadian/Japanese release
;Side one;Side two
25th Anniversary Edition bonus tracks
Personnel
;Deep Purple- Ian Gillan – lead vocals
- Ritchie Blackmore – rhythm and lead guitars
- Jon Lord – keyboards, Hammond organ
- Roger Glover – bass guitar
- Ian Paice – drums
- Recorded between September 1970 and June 1971 at De Lane Lea Studios, Olympic Studios, and The Hermitage
- Engineered by Martin Birch, Lou Austin and Alan O'Duffy
- Peter Mew – Original album remastering
- Tom Bender – Engineering work on the bonus tracks
Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
| 1971 | Belgian Ultratop | 1 |
| 1971 | Danish Albums Chart | 1 |
| 1971 | German Albums Chart | 1 |
| 1971 | Swedish Albums Chart | 1 |
| 1971 | UK Albums Chart | 1 |
| 1971 | Austrian Top 40 Albums | 1 |
| 1971 | Norwegian Albums Chart | 1 |
| 1971 | Dutch MegaCharts | 3 |
| 1971 | French Albums Chart | 3 |
| 1971 | Italian Albums Chart | 3 |
| 1971 | Israelite Albums Charts | 9 |
| 1971 | RPM100 | 24 |
| 1971 | The Billboard 200 | 32 |
| 1971 | Japanese Albums Chart | 66 |
| 1972 | Finnish Albums Chart | 1 |
| 1972 | Australian Albums Chart | 4 |
;Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
| 1971 | "Strange Kind of Woman" | Danish Singles Chart | 1 |
| 1971 | "Strange Kind of Woman" | German Singles Chart | 8 |
| 1971 | "Strange Kind of Woman" | UK Singles Chart | 8 |
| 1971 | "Strange Kind of Woman" | Austrian Top 40 Singles | 14 |
| 1971 | "Strange Kind of Woman" | French Singles Chart | 54 |
| 1971 | "Fireball" | Danish Singles Chart | 3 |
| 1971 | "Fireball" | UK Singles Chart | 15 |
| 1971 | "Fireball" | German Singles Chart | 19 |
| 1971 | "Fireball" | Dutch MegaCharts | 24 |