Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1970 album musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and the debut of the rock opera of the same name. Initially unable to get backing for a stage production, the composers released it as an album, the success of which led to stage productions premiering in 1971. The musical dramatises the Passion of Jesus, beginning with his entry into Jerusalem and ending with the crucifixion. It was originally banned by the BBC on grounds of being "sacrilegious". By 1983, the album had sold over seven million copies worldwide.

Lloyd Webber and Rice had earlier success with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Then, according to Lloyd Webber, the Dean of St Paul's, Martin Sullivan, suggested they do the story of Jesus next. "Tim and I rather resisted it," Lloyd Webber said, "but then Tim came up with this interesting angle. What if we told the story from Judas Iscariot's perspective?"

Lyrics in the 1964 Bob Dylan song "With God on Our Side" resonated with Rice: "You'll have to decide / Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side." Another inspiration was an advertisement showing Tom Jones dressed in white with the word 'SUPERSTAR' emblazoned across him.

Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote the title song, Superstar, first, in July 1969. Lloyd Webber explained, “It was agreed that we would first sort of ‘send up a flag' to see whether the public would accept our approach to the subject." They spent the next four months producing the single. They wrote the rest of the songs from November 1969 to March 1970.

The album's story is based in large part on the Bible and Fulton J. Sheen's Life of Christ. Rice said, "I used the King James and Catholic versions — whichever was handier — interchangeably. My biggest aid was Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ, in which Bishop Sheen calibrates and compares the Gospels." However, greater emphasis is placed on the interpersonal relationships of the major characters, in particular, Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene, relationships that are not described in depth in the Gospels.

"Herod's Song" is a lyrical rewrite of "Try It and See", previously written by Lloyd Webber and Rice as a proposed British entry into the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 to be sung by Lulu, then recorded and released as a single by Rita Pavone. The writers had also included it (as "Those Saladin Days") in an aborted show about Richard the Lionheart called Come Back Richard Your Country Needs You.

The melody of "I Don't Know How to Love Him" also predates Jesus Christ Superstar; it was rewritten from a 1968 Lloyd Webber/Rice collaboration titled "Kansas Morning".

The album was recorded from March to July 1970. For the recording, Lloyd Webber and Rice drew personnel from both musical theatre (Murray Head had just left the West End production of Hair) and the British rock scene (Ian Gillan had only recently become the singer of Deep Purple). Many of the primary musicians—guitarists Neil Hubbard and Henry McCullough, bassist Alan Spenner, and drummer Bruce Rowland—came from Joe Cocker's backing group The Grease Band. Saxophonist Chris Mercer had also played with Hubbard in Juicy Lucy.