Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Overture - Alan Doggett/City Of London Ensemble
2. Heaven On Their Minds - Murray Head
3. What's The Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying - Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan/Kay Garner...
4. Everything's Alright - Yvonne Elliman/Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan...
5. This Jesus Must Die - Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan/Kay Garner...
6. Hosanna - Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan/Kay Garner...
7. Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem - Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan/Kay Garner...
8. Pilate's Dream - Barry Dennen
9. The Temple - Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan/Kay Garner...
10. Everything's Alright - Yvonne Elliman/Ian Gillan
11. I Don't Know How To Love Him - Yvonne Elliman
12. Damned For All Time/Blood Money - Murray Head/Brian Keith/Victor Brox/Andrew Lloyd Webber

Disc 2:

1. The Last Supper - Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan/Kay Garner...
2. Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say) - Ian Gillan
3. The Arrest - Murray Head/Ian Gillan/Paul Davis/Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell...
4. Peter's Denial - Annette Brox/Paul Davis/Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett...
5. Pilate And Christ - Barry Dennen/Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan...
6. King Herod's Song (Try It And See) - Mike D'Abo
7. Judas' Death - Murray Head/Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell/Brian Bennett/Lesley Duncan...
8. Trial Before Pilate (Including The 39 Lashes) - Barry Dennen/Victor Brox/Ian Gillan/Pat Arnold/Tony Ashton/Peter Barnfeather/Madeline Bell...
9. Superstar - Murray Head/Andrew Lloyd Webber
10. Crucifixion - Ian Gillan
11. John Nineteen Forty-One - Jesus Christ Superstar

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5803 in Music
• Released on: 1990-07-02
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Cast Recording

Customer Reviews

So many "Jesus's" to pick from..
This is the ORIGINAL "Jesus Christ Superstar"..The one that upset legions of people because "There is no resurrection !"......"Judas is more compassionate than Christ"...."Mary Magdelene is portrayed as a prostitute"...."Jesus questions God in Gethsemane (blasphemy)"... Ian Gillan (a rock and roll singer as Christ?)...."members of Joe Cocker's Grease Band (known for alcohol and drug extravaganzas) as back-up musicians "... Yeah , I remember all the negativity that surrounded this recording in 1970 , but it still remains the BEST "Jesus Christ Superstar" ever...PERIOD ! Having listened to "Gethsemane" over 500 times , I still get shivers when Gillan emotes "Why must I die ?" regardless of your religious inclinations , THIS MUST BE HEARD !

But you really need the film version, too!
Read on and you'll see a bunch of reviews that trumpet Ian Gillan's Jesus over Ted Neeley's (film version). I like them both. However, I think that Carl Anderson (film version) is the ultimate Judas. Saw him and Ted Neeley live in a touring revival production in the early nineties. Neeley was OK from a nostalgic point of view - not as good as in the film, but Anderson just stole the show. He was every bit as charismatic and nimble as in the film, and his singing was just as powerful and heart-wrenching. Might as well buy both versions. They're both great in their own ways :-)

It would be sacrilege for me to criticize this I suppose ...
Written and first performed in the time of Andy Warhol and Coca Cola's "I'd like to teach the world to sing" advertisement, Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber's perhaps greatest work was more than just a musical story of the life of Jesus, although we can easily forget that now. It was, much like a Warhol, a way of speaking to that very vanilla heart of whitebread America. It was taking our most sacred myth and rendering it in the language of the people, and bringing it out of the refuge of the church and placing it on display right along with Coke, Pepsi, Rolling Stones, Marilyn Monroe, and all the great icons of the Western World, and subjecting it to the same overexposure and banality.

Sir Weber smashed that boundary between sacred and profane with this work portraying Jesus and the 12 disciples as a bunch of squabbling hippies, which were not in short supply in those days; the days when John Lennon made the famous remark that the Beatles were now "bigger than Jesus." Read the libretto of this work, and then read Tom Wolf's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests" if you disagree.

But perhaps the story of Jesus deserved and needed to be placed in the same marketplace of ideas that Coca Cola and Led Zeppelin lived in. Whether this was right or wrong, whether the story of Jesus deserved to be subjected to the same appreciation as a Dr. Pepper ad is not something I will debate -- much. I just know that's what happened. Jesus went Platinum, just like Kiss, just like the Beatles, and Jesus Christ complaining to the Lord that "You're far too keen on where and how but not so hot on why" has been forever burned onto my consciousness. I grew up with JCS, and I've known every word and note by heart and have ever since I was 12 or so.

So JCS, like The Lord of The Rings, The Beatles or "Stairway to Heaven," is yet another culture phenomenon I can't stand any more due to overexposure. Also because as I've grown older the general shallowness of it has become offensive. But such is the fate of all Warhol-style "pop" icons. To properly appreciate Jesus, however you approach him, within your own heart or through study, you have to reach deeper than this cliche-ridden rock opera.

And cliche-ridden as it is, it remains an absolutely brilliant work of composition in both the music and lyrics, and also a telling portrait of late 20th C America; Americans who only went to church on Christmas Eve or Easter Morning were grooving to JCS in the millions. The real religion for many of us was the Rock and Roll, and JCS was missionary work for a profane age; a way of reaching out to us. And Sir Weber was very much a product of his era, and indeed a brilliant composer.

I cannot stand JCS now, any more than I can tolerate "Cats." But I can acknowledge the cultural icon that it is, just as I can appreciate a print of Marilyn Monroe at the dentist's office. That is what Sir Weber hath wrought ultimately. But the fact that you have to look deeper for the real living spirit, that has always been and will always be true.