Andrew Lloyd Webber was born in the year of 1948 to parents who were both career musicians. His father a composer and organist, and his mother a violinist and piano player. It is not surprising that young Andrew followed in their footsteps, composing his first work at the tender age of 9 years.
In 1965 Webber teamed up with Tim Rice to produce their first musical “The Likes of Us” with Rice providing the lyrics, and the musical score was solely done by Lloyd-Webber. This show was influenced by the 40’s and 50’s style Broadway shows
In 1968 Rice and Lloyd Webber were commissioned to a do a show for the Colet Preparatory school and this small cantata was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat, a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph in which they humorously tack together various styles of music.
Close Every Door To Me …. From Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat, performed by Donny Osmond
For the third time Rice and Lloyd Webber colluded to produce their third musical, the much debated Jesus Christ Superstar. There was major criticism from religious sects, both Christian and Jewish but the stage show first opened in 1972 ran for 8 years at the Palace Theatre in London.
As is the case with these kinds of musicals, various artists perform in the different stage and film shows, so I am not discussing who played which roles. Here follows three tracks from JCS, the first being sung by Yvonne Elliman in 1973
Everything’s Alright
Superstar, Judas speaking to JC …. Also from 1973 … (rock more than classical; very worth a listen)
The next super musical that the duo composed was based on the political leader Eva Peron of Argentina.
From Wikipedia ….
As they had previously done with Jesus Christ Superstar, the songwriting team decided to record Evita as an album musical and selected actress and singer Julie Covington to sing the title role, after having caught an episode of Rock Follies and remembered her from the original London production of Godspell. The recording, which was released byMCA Records who had previously marketed Jesus Christ Superstar, commenced in April 1976 and was produced by Lloyd Webber and Rice. The recording was engineered by David Hamilton Smith, whose work Rice later acknowledged was effectively that of a third producer.
Oh What a Circus …. From the musical Evita, performed by David Essex
And the song that has me in gooseflesh every time I listen to it, the brilliant Julie Covington singing
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
Based on the life of Eva Peron … I urge you to spend some time reading about her here, and then listen to the musical which is freely available on Youtube.
Andrew Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and in 1997 was made a ‘life peer’as Baron Lloyd Webber. He received an academy award, a Golden Globe award, six Grammy Awards and numerous Tony Awards. Today he sits as a Conservative member of the House of Lords
It would be amiss of me to not include at least one track from that outstanding musical Phantom of the Opera, so without further ado…. The title track, followed by Music of the Night
An amazing composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has achieved much more than I am able to cover here. Thanks for reading, and hopefully listening to some stunning music
I must include the beautiful Sarah Brightman later Sarah Lloyd Webber performing a track from Phantom of the Opera
Credits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lloyd_Webber
www.youtube.com
I am featuring artists from the 60’s and 70’s from diverse genre’s over the next few months. If you love music … FOLLOW and take the journey with me..it is going to be one thrilling ride !! Furthermore I will only be featuring artists from MY vinyl collection, and I shall start all of the posts with a photo of an album cover to authenticate
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Previous Music Legends
Leonard Cohen
The Doors
Bob Dylan
The Rolling Stones
60’s Protest Artists
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Neil Young
And more .......