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Presumably, most who heard it around the time it was released-first on Deep Purple’s 1972 Machine Head album and then as a single, which reached #4 in Billboard the following year-were familiar with the true tale it told it was big news at the time. You can’t not break into an embarrassingly manic air guitar pose as soon as you hear it!īut it’s the backstory that makes “Smoke on the Water” even more intriguing. “Smoke on the Water” 7-inch picture sleeveĮvery rock fan knows Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” For one thing, it has one of the most memorable signature opening riffs-four notes, in G minor, played on a Fender Stratocaster by Ritchie Blackmore-that any band has ever devised.