Jesus Christ Superstar [50th Anniversary Edition]

by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Overview

Jesus Christ Superstar started life as a most improbable concept album from an equally unlikely label, Decca Records, which had not, until then, been widely known for groundbreaking musical efforts. It was all devised by then 21-year-old composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and 25-year-old lyricist Tim Rice. Jesus Christ Superstar had been conceived as a stage work, but lacking the funds to get it produced, the two collaborators instead decided to use an album as the vehicle for introducing the piece, a fairly radical rock/theater hybrid about the final days in the life of Jesus as seen from the point of view of Judas. If its content seemed daring (and perhaps downright sacrilegious), the work, a "sung-through" musical echoing operatic and oratorio traditions, was structurally perfect for an album; just as remarkable as its subject matter was the fact that its musical language was full-blown rock music. There was at the time an American-spawned hit theater piece called Hair that utilized elements of rock music, but it wasn't as unified a work as Webber and Rice's creation, and it was less built on rock music than on pop music that referred to rock; Webber and Rice's work presented a far sharper, bolder musical edge and pushed it much further and harder than Hair ever did. Serving as their own producers, the two creators got together more than 60 top-flight singers and musicians (including Chris Spedding, John Gustafson, Mike Vickers, P.P. Arnold, and members of Joe Cocker's Grease Band, not to mention Murray Head, Ian Gillan, and Yvonne Elliman in key singing roles), and managed to pull the whole production together into a more than coherent whole that contained a pair of hit singles (the title track and "I Don't Know How to Love Him") to help drive AM radio exposure. What's more, the whole album sounded like the real article as far as its rock music credibility was concerned -- it was played good and hard for a studio creation. Released in America by Decca as a handsomely decorated double-LP set complete with illustrated libretto, Jesus Christ Superstar seemed to pick up where the Who's Tommy (also a Decca release) and Hair had left off, and audiences from across the age and cultural spectrum responded. Teenagers who didn't know from Jesus, opera, or oratorios liked the beat, the hard rock sounds, and the singing and bought the album, as did parents who felt that the record offered a chance to understand some aspects of this youth culture around them, and especially its music -- and so did some more forward-thinking clergy and theologians, who saw any opportunity to spread the word about Jesus where it wasn't previously going as intrinsically good. The result was a chart-topping LP followed in short order by a Broadway production and, a little later, a multi-million-dollar movie (oddly enough, the original double LP created barely a ripple in England in 1970 and 1971, though there was eventually a British stage production that went on to become what was then the longest-running musical on London's West End). And all of this acceptance and embrace in America took place scarcely five years after an innocent observation by John Lennon concerning the relative popularity of the Beatles and Jesus, made in England but reported in the American tabloids, had led to protests and a media boycott of the band's music and their 1966 tour across the Bible Belt. Jesus Christ Superstar, by contrast, passed through the border and Southern states without any controversy, speaking volumes in the process about what had happened to American society in the interim. The original release was also the first "event" album of the '70s, presaging a brace of generally less successful efforts in that direction, ranging from Lou Adler and Lou Reizner's orchestrated version of Tommy (Pete Townshend's rock opera basically blown up to Jesus Christ Superstar dimensions) to the soundtrack All This and World War II and Leonard Bernstein's Mass. ~ Bruce Eder

Product Details

Release Date:	09/17/2021
Label:	Island / Umc
UPC:	0600753933190

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Andrew Lloyd Webber   Primary Artist,Organ,Piano,Vocals,Keyboards,Music Direction,Moog Synthesizer,Musical Director
Apostles   Primary Artist
Tim Rice   Primary Artist,Vocals
Original Studio Cast   Primary Artist
Paul Davis   Primary Artist,Primary Artist,Lead Vocals,Vocals,Vocals
Alan Doggett   Primary Artist,Ensemble,Conductor,Synthesizer,Choir/Chorus,Choir Director,Moog Synthesizer,Ensemble Director
Mike d'Abo   Primary Artist,Vocals
Jesus Christ Superstar Orchestra   Primary Artist,Orchestra
Victor Brox   Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Ian Gillan   Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Annette Brox   Primary Artist,Vocals
Yvonne Elliman   Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Murray Head   Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Brian Keith   Primary Artist,Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Barry Dennen   Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
The Apostles   Primary Artist
John Gustafson   Primary Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Jesus Christ Superstar   Primary Artist
Barbara Kay   Vocals
Madeline Bell   Vocals
Jeff Clyne   Guitar (Bass)
John Marshall   Drums
Lesley Duncan   Vocals
Peter Morgan   Guitar (Bass)
Neil Hubbard   Guitar (Electric)
Mick Weaver   Organ,Piano
Michael d'Abo   Lead Vocals
Chris Taylor   Flute
Terry Saunders   Vocals
Sue & Sunny   Vocals
Neil Lancaster   Vocals
John Burdon   Horn
Jesus Christ Superstar Cast Ensemble   Choir/Chorus
Peter Robinson   Organ,Piano,Keyboards,Piano (Electric)
Chris Mercer   Sax (Tenor)
Clive Hicks   Guitar
Alan Weighall   Guitar (Bass)
Chris Spedding   Guitar
James Brown   Horn
Tony Ashton   Vocals
Paul Raven   Lead Vocals,Vocals
Children's Choir   Choir/Chorus
Jim Buck Jr.   Horn
Mike Vickers   Moog Synthesizer
Trinidad Singers   Choir/Chorus,Vocal Ensemble,Featured Artist
Brian Bennett   Vocals
Keith Christie   Trombone
Harry Beckett   Trumpet
Henry McCullough   Guitar
Geoffrey Mitchell   Choir Director
Joe Castaldini   Bassoon
Horace James   Vocal Director
Alan Spencer   Bass
Brian Warren   Flute
Norman Carey   Piano
Jim Buck   Horn
Anthony Moore   Trombone
Carl Jenkins   Piano
City of London String Ensemble   Strings
Frank Jones   Trombone
Bill Le Sage   Percussion
Pat Arnold   Vocals
Kenny Wheeler   Trumpet
Kay Garner   Vocals
Louis Stewart   Guitar
Bruce Rowland   Drums,Percussion
Alan O'Duffy   Vocals
Alan Penner   Guitar (Bass)
Alan Spenner   Guitar (Bass)
Malcolm Henderson   Strings
Les Condon   Trumpet
Andrew McGavin   Horn
Ian Hamer   Trumpet
Steve Vaughan   Guitar
Ian Herbert   Clarinet
Henry McCulloch   Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Anthony Brooke   Bassoon
Douglas Moore   Horn
Peter Barnfeather   Vocals
Seafield St. George   Vocals

Technical Credits

Matt Berry   Liner Notes
Martin Rushent   Engineer
Tim Rice   Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Interviewee,Liner Notes
Nile Rodgers   Liner Notes
Alan Doggett   Children's Choirmaster
Mike d'Abo   Liner Notes
Andrew Lloyd Webber   Composer,Producer,Interviewee,Liner Notes,Orchestration
Stephen Vaughan   Engineer
Ian Gillan   Interviewee
Yvonne Elliman   Liner Notes
Jeremy Gee   Engineer
Don Norman   Production Manager
Alan O'Duffy   Engineer
Anton Matthews   Engineer
Fred Robbins   Interviewee
Tony Bridge   Engineer,Cutting Engineer
Lois Wilson   Interviewer,Liner Notes,Liner Note Compilation