Before Ronnie James Dio was fronting bands like Rainbow, Dio, and Black Sabbath, he was singing R&B and doo-wop in groups like Ronnie and the Redcaps. Recordings of Dio's early career are available on YouTube, but aren't readily available in any physical formats. That's where this Change.org petition comes in. The petition seeks to have the recordings reissued in basically any capacity.
Here's what the petition says.
"Serious fans of Ronnie James Dio have been longing for official releases of his early 1950s-60s era Doo-Wop / R&B / Vocal Pop recordings. These were done way before Elf and Rainbow even existed. These songs were mainly recorded under the group names Ronnie and the Red Caps and Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, though some were recorded under just Ronnie Dio.
"Here is an example of one of the recordings from this era, his rendition of the classic song "Love Potion No. 9" and performed by Ronnie Dio and the Prophets. If you prefer an original you can listen to "Love Pains", which was written under his legal name Padavona and also performed with The Prophets.
"There was only one full-length LP released by Ronnie Dio and the Prophets in 1963 called Dio at Domino's and it fetches thousands of dollars, when found in good condition (VG or better). However, this album was recorded live and did not feature any studio recordings. All the rest of the releases put out during this era were done as 45rpm singles, some of which can also fetch big money. There is one CD that was released in Spain during 2012 called Ronnie Dio and the Prophets – The Early Years, but this release is suspected to be unofficial as it doesn't have any licensing information…and it certainly doesn't exist on vinyl."
