This is a special date in my life.
For on this day, October 10, 1969, the “Jesus Christ Superstar” soundtrack album by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice was recorded.
Now, I don’t know how the “album buying” schematics worked in our household when I was a kid. But we had a lot of albums. First of all, let me explain the record player / radio system we had. It was a wooden thing. Probably cheap wood. And it looked like some kind of a long box with short legs and a lid. It was probably four feet wide by three feet tall, or around there. It sat in front of our fireplace (which did not make fires) in the living room.
If you lifted the lid, you would see the turntable on the left and the radio controls on the right, along with a built-in bin behind the radio, made to fit the size of an album. We had tons of albums packed in there so tight, you couldn’t even flip through them to see the covers. The albums were various in nature. But as I mentioned. I’m not sure who did the buying, or when these things occurred. I just know that no one consulted me.
So yes. The albums were there, and boy, oh boy, were they ever diverse.
Carol King. Herb Alpert. The Singing Nuns. Jefferson Starship. Janis Joplin. Barbra Streisand. Burt Bacharach. The Lennon Sisters. The Beatles. Jackson Five. Laurence Welk. West Side Story. The Who. And on and on. But snuggled in there was one of my favorites. Jesus Christ Superstar.
I would play that thing and sing. And dance. All around the living room.
For having a family of seven kids and two parents, I’m amazed, looking back, just how much time I had the living room to myself in this way. Anyway, the songs would play out loudly from that album.
Everything’s Alright.
I Don’t Know How To Love Him.
What’s The Buzz.
Hosanna.
And more.
I had to find out where it ranked in the Broadway scheme of things, so I sought out the top-selling Broadway albums of all time.
Jesus Christ Superstar came in 32nd, which surprised me. Godspell beat it out by only one place. And. More surprising was the fact that West Side Story, one of the greatest albums of all time, ranked 42nd.
The top-selling album?
Hamilton.
Then,
Les Miserables.
The Phantom of the Opera.
My Fair Lady.
Wicked.
(The entire list can be found at https://playbill.com/article/the-definitive-list-of-the-43-best-selling-cast-recordings-of-all-time )
At any rate, Jesus Christ Superstar showed up on this date. October 10.
And that is some good, good history.
“””””””””””””
“Always look on the bright side of life.”
-Spamalot
“””””””””””””
“Everyone deserves the chance to fly.”
-Wicked
“””””””””””””
“I’ll go eat some breakfast and then I’ll change the world.”
-Hairspray
“””””””””””””
Jesus. Not just a man. A Superstar.
