Jesus Christ Superstar was a 1970 rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. For the recording, Lloyd Webber and Rice drew personnel from both musical theatre, including Murray Head who had just left the West End production of Hair, and the British rock scene with Ian Gillan whom had only recently become the singer of Deep Purple.
Track listing
Disc 1:
1. “Overture” 2. “Heaven on Their Minds” 3. “What’s the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying” 4. “Everything’s Alright” 5. “This Jesus Must Die” 6. “Hosanna” 7. “Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem” 8. “Pilate’s Dream” 9. “The Temple” 10. “Everything’s Alright (reprise)” 11. “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” 12. “Damned for All Time/Blood Money”
Disc 2:
1. “The Last Supper” 2. “Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)” 3. “The Arrest” 4. “Peter’s Denial” 5. “Pilate and Christ” 6. “Herod’s Song (Try It and See)” 7. “Judas’ Death” 8. “Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)” 9. “Superstar” 10. “The Crucifixion” 11. “John Nineteen: Forty-One”
Flip through the gallery to learn more about Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar!
The album's story is based largely 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 Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene, that are not described in depth in the Gospels
Recorded October 10, 1969 and released in September 1970, Jesus Christ Superstar was originally banned by the BBC on grounds of being “sacrilegious
In 1970, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan received a call from Tim Rice asking him to perform the part of Jesus on the album recording. After rehearsing a few times with Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, he recorded his entire vocal contributions in three hours
Ian Gillan was offered the lead role in the 1973 film adaptation and demanded to be paid £250,000 for his role in the movie. He also insisted that the entire band be paid because filming would conflict with a scheduled tour. The producers declined, instead casting Ted Neeley in the Jesus role
Many of the primary musicians on the album including guitarists Neil Hubbard and Henry McCullough, bassist Alan Spenner, and drummer Bruce Rowland, came from Joe Cocker's backing group The Grease Band
The album topped the U.S. Billboard Pop Albums in 1971 and served as a launching pad for numerous stage productions on Broadway and in the West End. The album was listed as the top-selling LP on the U.S. Billboard Pop chart of 1971 and was the sixth most successful album of all time in Norway