Retro Videos of the Week: "Rainbow In The Dark"by Dio, "Gypsy Road" by Cinderella, and "Finish What Ya Started" by Van Halen

When doing my usual research to figure out any anniversaries of releases for this week's Retro Video of the Week, I discovered that there were several worthy candidates.  Rather than choose one, I am polyamorously going with all three because they are all awesome.

Here's what we got:

1.  Friday marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Dio's debut platinum-selling album, Holy Diver.  Fronted by former Rainbow and Black Sabbath lead singer -- and the man who brought devil horns to rock and roll -- the late great Ronnie James Dio, his eponymous band was a metal force in the '80s.  Joining Dio were former Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain, former Sweet Savage and future Whitesnake and Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell, and former Black Sabbath and Rick Derringer drummer Vinnie Appice.  How Ronnie James Dio is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is beyond me.  There aren't too many people who have influenced a genre of music (heavy metal, in his case) more than he has.  But that's an argument for another day.  I'm going with "Rainbow in the Dark" from the album because it's an awesome song and it has a video.

2.  Monday was the 30th anniversary of the release of Cinderella's second and most popular album, Long Cold Winter.  The album got to #10 on the Billboard album charts and went triple platinum in the U.S., thanks to four charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100:  "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" (#12), "Coming Home" (#20), "The Last Mile" (#36), and "Gypsy Road" (#51).  My favorite Cinderella song, "Take Me Back" is the last track on the album, but unfortunately, it wasn't release as a single or a video, so I'm going to give you "Gypsy Road" -- another fantastic, if not underrated, Cinderella song.

3.  Finally, tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of Van Halen's second release with lead singer Sammy Hagar -- the band's eighth studio album, OU812.  I'm not here to debate the merits of "Van Halen vs. Van Hagar."  Admittedly, I prefer the Roth era, but that doesn't mean I dislike the Hagar era.  (And I think we can all agree to just forget the Cherone era ever happened.)  OU812 went quadruple platinum in the U.S. -- which puts it in the middle of the pack as far as Van Halen albums go, which is a testament to the band as much as anything else.  The album went #1 in the U.S. and Canada, and was Top 10 in various other countries, and it had three Top 40 hits in the U.S.:  "When It's Love" (#5), "Finish What Ya Started" (#13) -- which is, in fact, about blue balls -- and "Black and Blue" (#34) -- which, ironically, is not about blue balls, or black balls for that matter.  Because I think the issue of blue balls is one that is often overlooked today, I'm going with "Finish What Ya Started."