ELF>>ELECTRIC ELF - USA

Elf - 1972 - Epic
Carolina County Ball - 1974 - Purple
Try To Burn The Sun - 1975 - MGM
And Before Elf... There Were Elves - 2011 - Niji

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Members
S= The Vegas Kings, Ronnie And The Rumblers, Ronnie And The Red Caps, Ronnie And The Prophets>>RONNIE JAMES DIO [RONALD PADAVONA]>>Dio, Rainbow, Black Sabbath
G= David Feinstein>>The Rods, Solo - STEVE EDWARDS
B= Ronnie James Dio [Ronald Padavona]>>>>Dio, Rainbow, Black Sabbath - CRAIG GRUBER>>Rainbow, Gary Moore, Bible Black, Black Sabbath, Zvekan, Raven Lord
D= The Velvet Underground>>Mark Nauseef>>Ian Gillan Band, Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott, G-Force, Jack Bruce, Solo - Ronnie And The Prophets>>GARY DRISCOLL>>Rainbow, Dakota, Bible Black
K= Roger Glover>>MICKEY LEE SOULE>>Roger Glover, Rainbow, Ian Gillan Band



History
Dio was born as Padavona circa 1941 in New Hampshire, but raised near Syracuse New York. Very early in his career the man changes his surname to Dio (though not legally apparently), which means 'God' in Italian and drops out of the University of Buffalo. Electric Elf (Elf until mid-1970) is known for featuring Dio (and between 1967 and 1973 his cousin David Feinstein - later of The Rods). The band played oddly and jazzy heavy rock and had opened for Deep Purple and in fact released an album on Purple Records. The guy booking Deep Purple in the USA was Dio’s manager Bruce Payne. Ritchie Blackmore had contracted Hepatitis and was back in England taking time off when Roger Glover and Ian Paice travelled to Georgia, USA to produce Elf’s debut. Dio used his birth name on the debut in order to make his parents proud. Subsequently Elf often opened for Deep Purple. The entire line up, minus poor Edwards, joins Ritchie Blackmore to become Rainbow. This after Blackmore had invited Dio to join him and other musicians in the studio record for a project band. Dio had spontaneously written an early version of Sixteenth Century Greensleeves for this single - which was never released. Carolina County Ball is the original and European title for the album that was released in the USA as L.A. 59. Elf had several singles like Rockin' Chair Rock 'N' Roll Blues and L.A. 59. The band had obviously split up well before Live arrived. The band moniker, reportedly, stems from the fact that guitarist Nick Pantas (Ronnie And The Prophets) had curled up boots that looked like an elf's! Others have asserted that the word 'elf' is a play on Dio's height. Manowar's Joey DeMaio and David Feinstein were once recruited to be part of an Elf reunion, which was only a few shows long!

In late 2011, Wendy Dio’s Niji Entertainment Group was issuing an early Elf album called And Before Elf. It featured early unreleased tracks from 1971 featuring Ronnie James Dio.

Driscoll’s corpse was discovered at a friend's house in Ithaca, New York in June, 1987. At the time of his murder he was 41. Bassist Craig Gruber died on Tuesday May 5th 2015 at the age of 63 due to prostate cancer. Gruber was a member of Elf, Rainbow and Black Sabbath.


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