Jesus Christ Superstar (album)

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.

Lyricist Rice said he took inspiration from the Bob Dylan song "With God on Our Side".[6]

"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 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".

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.

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.

The album topped the U.S. Billboard Top LP's chart in both February and May 1971[7] and ranked number one in the year-end chart ahead of Carole King's massive hit Tapestry.[8] 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 ("The Brown Album")[9] which contained the 2 vinyl records and a 28-page libretto.

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

Main players[10]

• Ian Gillan – Jesus Christ
• Murray Head – Judas Iscariot
• Yvonne Elliman – Mary Magdalene
• Victor Brox – Caiaphas, High Priest
• Barry Dennen – Pontius Pilate

Supporting players

• Brian Keith – Annas
• John Gustafson – Simon Zealotes
• Paul Davis – Peter
• Mike d'Abo – King Herod

Other players

• Annette Brox – Maid by the Fire
• Paul Raven – Priest
• Pat Arnold, Tony Ashton, Tim Rice, Peter Barnfeather, Madeline Bell, Brian Bennett, Lesley Duncan, Kay Garner, Barbara Kay, Neil Lancaster, Alan M. O'Duffy, Terry Saunders – Background vocals
• Choir conducted by Geoffrey Mitchell
• Children's choir conducted by Alan Doggett on "Overture"
• The Trinidad Singers, under the leadership of Horace James, on "Superstar"

Musicians

• Neil Hubbard – electric guitar
• Henry McCullough – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
• Chris Mercer – tenor sax
• J. Peter Robinson – piano, electric piano, organ, positive organ
• Bruce Rowland – drums, percussion
• Alan Spenner – bass guitar

Other musicians

• Harold Beckett, Les Condon, Ian Hamer, Kenny Wheeler – trumpet
• Anthony Brooke, Joseph Castaldini – bassoon
• Andrew McGavin, Douglas Moore, James Brown, Jim Buck Sr., Jim Buck Jr., John Burdon – horns
• Norman Cave, Karl Jenkins – piano
• Jeff Clyne, Peter Morgan, Alan Weighall – bass guitar
• Keith Christie, Frank Jones, Anthony Moore – trombone
• Alan Doggett – principal Conductor, Moog synthesizer
• Ian Herbert – clarinet
• Clive Hicks, Chris Spedding, Louis Stewart, Steve Vaughan – guitar
• Bill LeSage, John Marshall – drums
• Chris Taylor, Brian Warren – flute
• Mike Vickers – Moog synthesizer
• Mick Weaver – piano, organ
• Andrew Lloyd Webber – piano, organ, Moog synthesizer
• Strings of the City of London Ensemble

Production

• Alan O'Duffy – chief engineer

Original Concept Recording. Jesus Christ Superstar – A Rock Opera. Universal City, California: 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.)

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• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Jesus Christ Superstar (film)

• jesuschristsuperstar.com: The Album
• Jesus Christ Superstar at Discogs (list of releases)