70s Iconic Hits and Stories

Deep Purple Soldier of Fortune is the most unexpected song in the band’s catalog, a stripped-back acoustic ballad that showed a side of Deep Purple nobody saw coming.

Deep Purple Stormbringer is one of the most important songs in the band’s catalog — the track that defined the Mark III sound and pushed Ritchie Blackmore out the door.

Deep Purple Burn arrived in 1974 and changed everything the band had built. Here is the full story behind one of the greatest hard rock songs ever recorded.

Deep Purple Woman from Tokyo was written in Rome before the band had ever visited Japan. A burned-out lineup produced one of their most enduring songs. Here is the full story.

Deep Purple Space Truckin closes Machine Head in four minutes and stretches to twenty in concert. The riff started with Batman. The song eventually went to actual space. Here is the full story.

Deep Purple Lazy is a seven-minute blues jam recorded in a Montreux hotel corridor in 1971. Blackmore’s solo was voted top 100 of all time. Here is the full story.

Deep Purple Fireball opened the band’s first UK number one album with an air conditioner and a drum explosion. Here is the full story behind one of the Mk II era’s most concentrated songs.

Deep Purple Strange Kind of Woman was originally called Prostitute, peaked at number eight in the UK in 1971, and became one of the most explosive live songs the Mk II lineup ever performed.

Deep Purple Speed King opened In Rock, launched the Mk II era, and held the concert opener slot for 18 months. Here is the full story behind one of hard rock’s earliest speed metal blueprints.

Deep Purple Black Night is the band’s highest-charting UK single, written in minutes after six fruitless studio hours and a trip to the pub. Here is the full story.

Deep Purple Child in Time is a ten-minute Cold War epic recorded in a single afternoon in 1969. Here is the complete story behind hard rock’s first truly epic song.

Deep Purple Highway Star was written on a tour bus in 1971 and performed live the same night. Here is the complete story behind one of rock’s greatest opening tracks.