Jesus Christ Superstar (album)
Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1970 album musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, on which the 1971 rock opera of the same name was based. Initially unable to get backing for a stage production, the composers released it as an album, the success of which led to stage productions. The album musical is a musical dramatisation of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ, beginning with his entry into Jerusalem and ending with the Crucifixion. It was originally banned by the BBC on grounds of being "sacrilegious".[6][7] By 1983, the album had sold over seven million copies worldwide.[8]
For the film soundtrack album, see Jesus Christ Superstar (film) § Soundtrack.Jesus Christ Superstar
Composition[edit]
Webber and Rice had earlier success with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Then, according to Webber, the
Dean of St. Paul's, Martin Sullivan, suggested they do the story of Jesus next. "Tim and I rather resisted it," Webber said, "but then Tim came up with this interesting angle. What if we told the story from Judas Iscariot's perspective?"[9]
Lyrics in the 1964 Bob Dylan song "With God on Our Side" resonated with Rice: "You'll have to decide / Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side."[10] Another inspiration was an ad showing Tom Jones dressed in white with the word SUPERSTAR emblazoned across him.[11]
Rice and Webber wrote the title song, Superstar, first, in July 1969. Webber explained, “It was agreed that we would first sort of ‘send up a flag' to see whether the public would accept our approach to the subject."[12] They spent the next four months producing the single. They wrote the rest of the songs from November 1969 to March 1970.[13]
The album's story is based in large part on the Bible and Fulton J. Sheen's Life of Christ. Rice said, "I used the King James and Catholic versions — whichever was handier — interchangeably. My biggest aid was Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ, in which Bishop Sheen calibrates and compares the Gospels."[12] 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" is a lyrical rewrite of "Try It and See", previously written by Lloyd Webber and Rice as a proposed British 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 about Richard the Lionhearted called Come Back Richard Your Country Needs You.
The melody of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" also predates Jesus Christ Superstar; it was rewritten from a 1968 Lloyd Webber/Rice collaboration titled "Kansas Morning".[14]
Recording[edit]
The album was recorded from March to July 1970.[13] 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[edit]
The first piece of Superstar released was the title song, as a single in November 1969 backed with the instrumental "John Nineteen Forty-One" (see John 19:41). The full album followed almost a year later.
In the U.S., the double album was released on October 27, 1970. Less than three weeks later, on November 16, it achieved gold status ($1 million in sales).[15]
The album topped the U.S. Billboard Top LP's chart in both February and May 1971[16] and ranked number one in the year-end chart ahead of Carole King's massive hit Tapestry.[17] 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 two-record set was packaged in the U.S. with a special thin brown cardboard outer box ("The Brown Album")[18] which contained the two vinyl records and a 28-page libretto.
Reception[edit]
Hubert Saal, in Newsweek, called it "nothing short of brilliant — and reverent. Staying well within limits prescribed by the Gospels, the opera galvanizes the story and the scenes of the Passion with its own fresh imagination and vitality."[19] Critic John Rockwell, writing in the Los Angeles Times, thought, "...at it's best, Jesus works. Rice and Weber have managed more effectively than the composers of any previous rock-opera that I know of to characterize individuals in both words and music. And they are helped by an excellent cast."[20] Billboard's critic wrote, "This brilliant musical portrayal of the last seven days of Jesus is destined to become one of the most talked about and provocative albums on the pop scene.[21] Music critic Thomas Willis wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "I am neither a theologian nor a rock critic, but if Jesus Christ Superstar isn't the most important religious music of the year — and one of two or three significant recordings of the decade — I am sadly mistaken."[22] He added, "The ingredients in this unique production are absolutely first rate." Nat Hentoff, in Cosmopolitan, called it "the most remarkable large-scale rock work yet created" and called the singers "superbly cast."[23]
Other critics unfavorably compared it to the Who's Tommy: Variety thought, "Somewhat overstated, the opera lacks the overall impact of Tommy."[24] Mike Jahn, in the Baltimore Sun, went further: "Tommy seemed a labor of love, with good stories well-told...In comparison, Jesus Christ Superstar seems a labor of opportunism with almost no inspiration. In fact, when it isn't dead boring it's embarrassing..."[25]
Main players[26]
Supporting players
Other players
Musicians
Other musicians
Production