Jesus Christ Superstar (album)

Composition

The album's story is based in large part on the Synoptic Gospels and Fulton J. Sheen's Life of Christ, which compares and calibrates all four Gospels. However, greater emphasis is placed on the interpersonal relationships of the major characters, in particular, Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene, relationships that are not described in depth in the Gospels.

"Herod's Song (Try It and See)" is a lyrical rewrite of "Try It and See," previously written by Lloyd Webber and Rice as a proposed UK entry into the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest to be sung by Lulu, then recorded and released as a single by Rita Pavone. The writers had also included it (as "Those Saladin Days") in an aborted show called Come Back Richard Your Country Needs You.

The melody of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" also predates Superstar; it was rewritten from a 1968 Lloyd Webber/Rice collaboration titled "Kansas Morning."

Recording

For the recording, Lloyd Webber and Rice drew personnel from both musical theatre (Murray Head had just left the West End production of Hair) and the British rock scene (Ian Gillan had only recently become the singer of Deep Purple). Many of the primary musicians — guitarists Neil Hubbard and Henry McCullough, bassist Alan Spenner, and drummer Bruce Rowland — came from Joe Cocker's backing group The Grease Band. Saxophonist Chris Mercer had also played with Hubbard in Juicy Lucy.

Release

The first piece of Superstar released was the title song, as a single in November 1969 backed with the instrumental "John Nineteen Forty-One." The full album followed almost a year later.

The album topped the U.S. Billboard Pop Albums in both February and May 1971 and ranked number one in the year-end chart ahead of Carole King's massive hit Tapestry. It also served as a launching pad for numerous stage productions on Broadway and in the West End. The original 1970 boxed-set issue of this 2-record set was packaged in the U.S. with a special thin brown cardboard outer box which contained the 2 vinyl records and a 28-page libretto. The album was listed as the top-selling LP on the U.S. Billboard Pop chart of 1971. It is also the sixth most successful album of all time in Norway, peaking at No. 3 and staying on the charts for 87 weeks.

Track listing

All compositions written by Tim Rice (lyrics and book) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (music).

Credits

Main players

Supporting players

Other players

Musicians

Other musicians

Production

Reissue

Original Concept Recording. 'Jesus Christ Superstar – "A Rock Opera" '. Universal City, CA: MCA Records Inc.[USA], ©1993 (released 24 SEP 1996). Cat. No. MCAD2-11542 [2 CDs], UPC 008811154226
(N.B.: Black title on front and back cover; gold 'angels' logo; gold lettering on the spine. Depending on the retailer, an outer sticker may state that the album was 'Digitally Remastered [Complete on 2 CDs]' and/or 'Original Artwork and Libretto'. This information is not found on the inner packaging.)