Jesus Christ Superstar (album)

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Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar cover
Studio album by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice
Released October 1970
Genre Rock opera
Length 86:56
Label Decca Records/MCA Records
Producer(s) Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Professional reviews
1996 Edition Cover
1996 Edition Cover


Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1970 rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The album 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.

The album's story generally follows the account given in the four canonical Gospels. However, greater emphasis is placed on the interpersonal relationships of the major characters, in particular, Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene.

The album reached #1 on the Billboard chart in 1971 and served as a launching pad for numerous stage productions on Broadway and in the West End.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

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

[edit] Disc one

  1. "Overture" – 3:56
  2. "Heaven on Their Minds" – 4:21
  3. "What's the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying" – 4:13
  4. "Everything's Alright" – 5:14
  5. "This Jesus Must Die" – 3:33
  6. "Hosanna" – 2:08
  7. "Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem" – 4:47
  8. "Pilate's Dream" – 1:26
  9. "The Temple" – 4:40
  10. "Everything's Alright" – 0:30
  11. "I Don't Know How to Love Him" – 4:07
  12. "Damned for All Time/Blood Money" – 5:07

[edit] Disc two

  1. "The Last Supper" – 7:06
  2. "Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)" – 5:32
  3. "The Arrest" – 3:20
  4. "Peter's Denial" – 1:27
  5. "Pilate and Christ" – 2:43
  6. "King Herod's Song (Try it and See)" – 3:00
  7. "Judas' Death" – 4:14
  8. "Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)" – 5:12
  9. "Superstar" – 4:15
  10. "Crucifixion" – 4:01
  11. "John Nineteen: Forty-One"[1] – 2:04

[edit] Trivia

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  • The original demo tapes for the album (according to Tony Bramwell, a Beatles assistant) featured John Gustafson on bass and were offered to the Beatles' Apple Records label for release. It only really went into consideration because the Beatles knew Gustafson from a band variously known as Cass and the Casanovas and the Big Three from Liverpool that they used to know. Bramwell claims that people could be heard singing the title track around the offices all the time. Unfortunately, Apple's business affairs were in a sad state at this time and still being sorted out by Allen Klein, so the album slipped through the cracks. Bramwell has a theory that when employee Peter Brown (who now works for Lloyd Webber) left the company to join Robert Stigwood, he took the tapes with him and that is how Stigwood got interested. Bramwell doesn't feel the tapes were a big loss, because no one was doing anything with them; as for the show and the writers, however, he does wish Apple kept them, because it would have kept the company afloat well into the 1980s were Lloyd Webber and Rice to have had the same success they did.
  • It is believed that the above true story was what started the rumor that John Lennon had been offered the role of Christ in the actual production of the show, which at that time was slated for St. Paul's Cathedral in London and then titled simply Jesus Christ. Some "reputable" newspapers also claimed that Lennon backed out because his controversial wife, Yoko Ono, was not allowed the role of Mary. The truth is that a newspaper called Tim Rice and asked him how he'd feel about John Lennon playing Jesus, and Rice was amiable; that same newspaper then called Lennon, who said he was up to it. A big headline was thus made out of nothing. When Rice and Webber had to perform damage control, they stated that they had chosen not to use Lennon because they didn't want him to divert attention from the part to himself. Other similar "star casting" rumors were spreading around, such as the rumor that Marianne Faithfull was to play Mary Magdalene. While Rice and Webber did seek big name stars for some roles (among others, Mick Jagger and David Cassidy were considered), none were ultimately chosen (unless you count Ian Gillan, and the artist below).
  • Paul Raven, born Paul Gadd, later became famous as Gary Glitter.
  • Seafield St. George is a combination of Murray Head's middle names; he added background vocals later in the process.
  • During recording of the thirty-nine lashes sequence, Tim Rice complained that the lashes sounded too soft, and they needed something rougher. Someone volunteered that it was because the studio was padded that the sound was too soft. "Then let's do the bloody thing in the hall!" Rice is reported to have exclaimed. They set up microphones out in the hall for the background vocalists to provide crowd noises while Rice counted (it's his voice you hear on the recording) and did the lashing on the floor using a board with a smaller board hinged onto it.
  • After the concept album was recorded, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice discovered, to their horror, that a small part of Pilate's dialogue had been erased from the master tapes. Barry Dennen was no longer available, so Murray Head stepped in and recorded the vital missing words "this un-for-tu-nate" on the album.
  • At one point, the writers/producers could no longer afford to pay the singers for their session work, so they started offering a percentage of the royalties as payment. Many people (while skeptical, because they were unsure of the record's potential success) took the royalties, save for Yvonne Elliman, who was advised by her agent not to do it because he thought the album would be a dud. Asked later on, she said, "If I had taken the royalty, I'd be... $100,000 richer right now."
  • However, another source claims that Murray Head was the only one who took the royalties; this, too, is contradicted by an interview with Brian Keith in which he says he took the royalty option after listening to the album during final mixing, and that he still makes money from it because the album still sells a lot.
  • On their late-2005 tour of Japan, rock band Weezer covered the song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" as "I Don't Know How to Love Her." [1]

[edit] Credits

[edit] Main Players

[edit] Supporting Players

  • Annette Brox - Maid by the Fire
  • Paul Raven - Priest
  • Pat Arnold - Background vocals
  • Tony Ashton - Background vocals
  • Peter Barnfeather - Background vocals
  • Madeline Bell - Background vocals
  • Brian Bennett - Background vocals
  • Lesley Duncan - Background vocals
  • Kay Garner - Background vocals
  • Barbara Kay - Background vocals
  • Neil Lancaster - Background vocals
  • Alan M. O'Duffy - Background vocals
  • 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"

[edit] Musicians

[edit] Other musicians

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

[edit] References

  1. ^ Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid.

[edit] See also

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