By the time he came to prominence as the lead singer of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow,
Ronnie James Dio had accumulated an extensive rock & roll résumé (longer than he'd like to admit, actually) performing with a number of groups, ranging from doo-wop in the late '50s to psychedelic rock in the '60s. But it wasn't until he founded
Elf in the early '70s that
Dio, or Ronald Padavona as he was then called, took his first tentative steps toward hard rock. Still, with the honky tonk piano playing of Mickey Lee Soule dominating many of its songs,
Elf's self-titled Epic Records debut (produced by
Deep Purple bassist
Roger Glover) hardly qualifies as a bona fide heavy metal record. In fact, tracks like "Hoochie Koochie Lady," "First Avenue," and "Sit Down Honey" sound more like
the Rolling Stones than
Black Sabbath, and it's only occasionally ("I'm Coming Back to You," "Gambler Gambler") that the band produces truly stripped-down, gritty hard rock. "Never More" is perhaps the album's most interesting track, starting with lilting piano and a dramatic delivery from
Dio (sounding rather like
Freddie Mercury) before launching into a driving hard rock riff in the vein of his best work with
Rainbow and
Sabbath in later years. A must-own for
Dio fanatics only. [Elf was also released on picture disc.] ~ Eduardo Rivadavia