June 1971 - Toronto CHUM chart highest position: 1
I hadn't heard this in over 40 years before listening to it for this project. It starts off with possibly the most overwrought orchestrated intro in the history of pop music. The verses of this song are a bit of 1970s funk-soul, and the choruses are a women's choir. Eventually, the funk, orchestration, and choral voices combine to form one giant chunk of orchestral choral funk, or something like that; the producers seem to have thrown everything but the kitchen sink into it. Murray Head does a good job of singing the lyrics, so I was able to listen to the whole thing.
The musical Jesus Christ Superstar came into existence a bit at a time, as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice weren't sure whether the story of Jesus could become a popular musical. "Superstar" was written first, in 1969, followed by the rest of the soundtrack album, which was released in 1970. When the soundtrack album became popular, they went ahead and created the full musical, which was performed for the first time in 1971.
Murray Head (born 1946) was born in London and has had an extensive career as an actor and musician. His recording of "Superstar" appears on the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack album and reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. He reached #3 in 1985 with "One Night In Bangkok", from the musical Chess.
Head's last recording was released in 2012 and he continued acting until 2019. His younger brother, Anthony Head, played Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Rupert Mannion in Ted Lasso; he passed away at the start of this month.
Created June 16, 2026.