The Premiere Collection: The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber | |
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Compilation album by | |
Released | 1988 |
Genre | Classical crossover |
Label | Really Useful Group |
The Premiere Collection: The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber is a 1988 compilation album, bringing together some of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's best known compositions at the time of release. It includes songs from the musicals The Phantom of the Opera , Tell Me on a Sunday , Evita , Cats , Jesus Christ Superstar , Starlight Express and Requiem . Co-writers of the songs include Tim Rice, Don Black, Richard Stilgoe, Charles Hart and Trevor Nunn.
The album spent two weeks at number one in the UK Compilation Chart in January 1989. [1] [2]
It was released by Really Useful Records and Polydor on LP (with a gatefold cover), cassette and CD.
Chart (1988–1994) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA) [3] | 1 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [4] | 1 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [5] | 16 |
UK Albums (OCC) [6] | 100 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Australia (ARIA) [7] | 2× Platinum | 200,000 [8] |
Canada (Music Canada) [9] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [10] | 3× Platinum | 900,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber, is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano singer, actress and dancer.
Tell Me on a Sunday is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. A one-woman show, it has been performed by a number of female singers/actors, most notably Marti Webb and Bernadette Peters. A one-act song cycle, it tells the story of an ordinary English girl from Muswell Hill, who journeys to the United States in search of love. Her romantic misadventures begin in New York City, lead her to Hollywood, and eventually take her back to Manhattan.
The Really Useful Group Ltd. (RUG) is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is involved in theatre, film, television, video and concert productions, merchandising, magazine publishing, records and music publishing. The name is inspired by a phrase from the children's book series The Railway Series in which Thomas the Tank Engine and other locomotives are referred to as "Really Useful Engines".
Steven Neal Barton was an American actor, singer, dancer, teacher, choreographer, and stage director, who worked in English and German-language productions.
"Everything's Alright" is a song from the 1970 album and 1971 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is about the anointing of Jesus.
The Premiere Collection Encore is a 1992 compilation album by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The album acted as a follow-up to The Premiere Collection: The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber. In the four intervening years, the original London production of Aspects of Love and Lloyd Webber's new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat had both opened; therefore a number of tracks were included from those shows.
Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1970 album musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, on which the 1971 rock opera of the same name was based. Initially unable to get backing for a stage production, the composers released it as an album, the success of which led to stage productions. The album musical is a musical dramatisation of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ, 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.
Nigel Wright is a record producer from England. His career as music producer, orchestrator and songwriter has scored five number one singles, 31 Top 20 singles and a string of platinum albums with recording artists as diverse as Madonna, Shakatak, Mezzoforte, Barbra Streisand, Boyzone, Sonia, Take That, Sinitta, José Carreras, Robson & Jerome, Michael Ball, Sarah Brightman, The Texas Tenors, Cliff Richard, Connie Fisher, Paul Potts, Andy Abraham and Ray Quinn.
Brad Little is an American musical theatre actor who has appeared in a number of Broadway and touring productions, most notably The Phantom of the Opera.
"The Phantom of the Opera" is a song from the 1986 stage musical of the same name. It was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics written by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, and additional lyrics by Mike Batt. The song was originally recorded by Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley, which became a UK hit single in 1986, prior to the musical. In its theatrical debut, it was sung by Brightman and Michael Crawford in their roles as Christine Daaé and the Phantom.
A sung-through musical, musical film, opera, or other work of performance art is one in which songs entirely or almost entirely replace any spoken dialogue. Conversations, speeches, and musings are communicated musically, for example through a combination of recitative, aria, and arioso. Early versions of this include the Italian genre of opera buffa, a light-hearted form of opera that gained prominence in the 1750s.
"All I Ask of You" is a song from the 1986 English musical The Phantom of the Opera, between characters Christine Daaé and Raoul, originally played on stage by Sarah Brightman and Steve Barton, respectively. It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, and solely produced by Lloyd Webber. An operatic pop piece, its lyrics serve as dialogue between the two characters and discuss themes such as commitment and romance. Like Lloyd Webber's song "The Music of the Night", "All I Ask of You" was compared to the music found in Giacomo Puccini's 1910 opera La fanciulla del West.
Lloyd Webber Plays Lloyd Webber is a 1989 album by British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber interpreting songs written by his older brother, the popular musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The album was recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth. The album primarily featured classical musicians with the notable exception of Rod Argent of The Zombies.
Diva: The Singles Collection is a 2006 compilation album by Sarah Brightman. Alongside this album, Brightman released a DVD collection of her music videos on 3 October 2006 under the title of Diva: The Video Collection. The album marked the first time Brightman released a greatest hits album in the United States. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Crossover chart. In Japan, the album debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 77,000 copies sold on its first week of release, and became Japan's best-selling classical album of 2007. Subsequently, it was Japan's fifteenth best-selling international album of the 2000s decade. Diva was also the best-selling western album in South Korea in 2010, as it topped the international charts for 26 non-consecutive weeks. As of December 2013, it has been certified Quintuple Platinum in the country.
"Unexpected Song" is a 1984 song from the musical Song and Dance originally sung by Bernadette Peters. The music was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Don Black. It is one of Lloyd Webber's most frequently performed compositions.
Tell Me on a Sunday was the first solo album released by Marti Webb.
Evita is a concept album released in 1976 and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Having successfully launched their previous show, Jesus Christ Superstar, on record in 1970, Lloyd Webber and Rice returned to the format for Evita. The album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London from April to September 1976 and released in the United Kingdom on 19 November 1976.
Sings the Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber is a studio album by Shirley Bassey, released in 1993.
Aspects of Andrew Lloyd Webber is the second studio album by Australian singer Marina Prior featuring Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Brian Stacey. It was released in November 1992 and peaked at number 22 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The album was certified gold for shipment of 35000 copies.