Before the movie, before the stage show, before even the concept album, “Jesus Christ Superstar” began with this single. Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice couldn’t get financial backing to mount the stage production, a retelling of the Passion of Christ with Judas Iscariot as the central character, so they decided to record it as a concept album.
They were still writing songs for it when they convinced their record company to release the title song as a single. They chose Murray Head, who was in the West End production of “Hair” at the time, to play Judas. (Ian Gillen, Deep Purple’s lead singer, portrayed Jesus). The single was greeted with yawns, reaching only No. 37 in the UK and No. 74 in the US in early 1970.
On the other hand, the double LP, released later that year, was a smash, eventually selling 7 million copies in the US and topping Billboard’s album chart for the year. The re-released single then hit No. 14. The success of the album spawned a production that ran for 711 performances on Broadway, despite lukewarm reviews, but ran for seven years in the West End.
As one would expect, the entire enterprise was condemned by both Christians and Jews. Christians were offended that the show portrayed Christ as a man, avoiding questions of his divinity, and ended without his resurrection. Jews contended that the plotting Pharisees shown condemning Jesus to death bolstered the anti-Semitism of the Christian Bible.
The original single, with backup vocals by the Trinidad Singers, was promoted with a video that had Head strolling precariously atop the ruins of a church.
The stage show’s success naturally spawned a 1973 film that, like everything else connected with the project, was met with sharply divided opinions. Director Norman Jewison shot on location in Israel but framed the story as the production of a modern theater troupe, full of anachronistic modern weapons and costumes.
The role of Judas went to Carl Anderson, who understudied the role on Broadway. Even the negative reviews tended to single out his performance as a highlight.
