Difficult to Cure
1981 studio album by Rainbow

Difficult to Cure is the fifth studio album by the British hard rock band Rainbow, and it was released in 1981. It was the first album to feature drummer Bobby Rondinelli and vocalist Joe Lynn Turner after the departures of Cozy Powell and Graham Bonnet respectively, following the tour in support of Down to Earth. The album marked the continuing commercialization of the band's sound, with Ritchie Blackmore once describing at the time his appreciation of the band Foreigner. It became the band's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at number three.
Recording
Writing of the album's material was begun with singer Graham Bonnet still in the band, progressing as far as recording an early version of "I Surrender", before Bonnet left the band due to his dissatisfaction over the material, and numerous fallouts with Blackmore. American singer Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Fandango was recruited and sang over already completed musical tracks. Turner stated that, because of this, he was singing in higher keys than he would do normally (and would do subsequently).
Release
Allegedly, the album's cover (designed by Hipgnosis) had originally been proposed for use on Black Sabbath's 1978 release Never Say Die!.
"I Surrender" would be the band's highest charting single in the UK, reaching No. 3.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1753279. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Difficult to Cure” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.