Biography
Born on September 20, 1943, in Ranger, Texas, Ted Neeley built a multifaceted career as a singer, drummer, actor, composer, vocal arranger, and record producer. At age 22 he secured his initial contract with Capitol Records and, together with the Teddy Neeley Five, issued the self-titled Teddy Neeley in 1965. His baritone could ascend several octaves into a precise, rock-era scream when required, a range he first exercised in Los Angeles theater productions. Those appearances led to an audition for the Broadway mounting of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, where he was cast as understudy before assuming the title role in the Los Angeles company that played the Universal Amphitheatre; he later repeated the part on screen in the 1973 film. Public recognition followed directly from both the stage and cinematic portrayals, after which he joined the original theatrical production of the Who’s Tommy. In 1974 he delivered the solo album 1974 A.D. and portrayed Billy Shears in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he sustained a schedule of musical-theater engagements while guesting in television dramas such as Starsky and Hutch and taking the role of Curly in the NBC telefilm adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men; he also maintained a concert presence with Pacific Coast Highway. During the 1990s he resumed the title character in a revised touring edition of Jesus Christ Superstar and returned to it once more in a minimalist production that traveled between 2006 and 2010. In 2013 he issued the five-track EP Rock Opera, which featured the Who’s “See Me, Feel Me,” a duet with fellow Jesus Christ Superstar alum Yvonne Elliman on “Up Where We Belong,” a version of Bryan Adams’s hit “Do I Have to Say the Words?,” a reading of the Christmas standard “O Holy Night,” and, through contemporary studio techniques, a duet with the late Carl Anderson on “God’s Gift to the World.”
Albums
