Tim Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English author and Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award, and Grammy Award-winning lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita; with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, with whom he wrote Chess; for additional songs for the 2011 West End revival of The Wizard of Oz; and for his work for Walt Disney Studios with Alan Menken (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, King David), Elton John (The Lion King, Aida, The Road to El Dorado), and Ennio Morricone. (More from Wikipedia)
From the beginning, Jesus Christ Superstar was conceived for the stage by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice – just 21 and 25 years old at the time, respectively – but in order to raise money for the ambitious and undoubtedly controversial theatrical production, they decided to record the album first.
“Superstar”, with lead vocals by Murray Head, was released in late 1969 before the album Jesus Christ Superstar was even completed, much to the chagrin of MCA Records. (Head later recorded the main single from another Tim Rice production, Chess, called “One Night in Bangkok”, which came out in 1975).
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is another Biblically themed musical created by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and is the first of their productions to be presented publicly, predating Jesus Christ Superstar by several years.
(October 2014)
