Yvonne Elliman

Yvonne Marianne Elliman, born December 29, 1951, in the Manoa neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her mother was of Japanese and Chinese descent, and her father, who worked as a salesman for Best Foods, was of Irish descent. Elliman demonstrated an early aptitude for music, taking up the ukulele at age four and beginning piano lessons at seven. During her time at President Theodore Roosevelt High School, she played standup bass and violin in the school band, though she ultimately became most proficient on guitar. She co-founded a folk music group called We Folk with classmates, competing in local talent shows. Her senior-year attendance was poor, but the intervention of her British-born band teacher, Peter Wilcox, persuaded her instructors to allow her to graduate. Wilcox also encouraged the then-17-year-old Elliman to move to London and pursue a professional music career, which she did shortly after finishing school.

Elliman began performing in London bars and clubs in 1969. While still unknown, she was discovered by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who recruited her to sing the role of Mary Magdalene on the original audio recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, which featured Ian Gillan as Jesus and was released as an album in 1970. Following the album's release, Rice and Lloyd Webber invited her to join the traveling stage production, where she remained for four years. Elliman appeared in the original Broadway production in 1971, and she and Barry Dennen were the only performers to appear on the original concept album, the Broadway cast, and the 1973 film adaptation. Her portrayal of Mary Magdalene in the film earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1974 for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

Her first Billboard Hot 100 entry came in 1971 with "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar. The single was not initially released until a cover version by Helen Reddy began climbing the U.S. charts; both versions appeared on the charts simultaneously, a rare occurrence. Elliman's original peaked at number 28, while Reddy's cover reached number 13.

At age 19, Elliman relocated to New York City for the Broadway run of the show, where she met Bill Oakes, president of RSO Records, whom she married in 1972. Prior to that move, she had signed with Purple Records, contributing vocals to Jon Lord's album Gemini Suite in 1971 and releasing her solo album Food of Love in 1973. In 1974, she was asked to sing backing vocals on Eric Clapton's recording of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff," after which she joined Clapton's touring band and secured her own recording contract with RSO Records. She continued collaborating with Clapton on his albums from 1974 to 1977, including 461 Ocean Boulevard, There's One in Every Crowd, E. C. Was Here, No Reason to Cry, and Slowhand.

Her RSO debut, Rising Sun, produced by Steve Cropper, did not yield hit singles, but her subsequent album Love Me, produced by Freddie Perren, generated two top-20 entries. "Love Me," written by Barry and Robin Gibb, reached number 14 on the pop charts in late 1976 and early 1977, while a cover of Barbara Lewis's "Hello Stranger" topped the U.S. Easy Listening chart for four weeks and peaked at number 15 on the pop chart in 1977. At that point Elliman had three top-10 singles on the Adult Contemporary chart simultaneously.

In 1977, the Bee Gees composed "How Deep Is Your Love" with Elliman in mind while working on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, but RSO's Robert Stigwood directed the group to record it themselves. Elliman instead recorded "If I Can't Have You," which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, and is widely regarded as the peak of her recording career. A handful of additional top-40 entries followed in 1979, including the title theme from the film Moment by Moment, the disco track "Love Pains," and the single "Savannah." That same period included a guest appearance on a two-part episode of Hawaii Five-O in 1978, in which she played an aspiring singer and performed "I Can't Get You Outa My Mind" alongside fellow guest James Darren.

After a decade of active recording and performing, Elliman stepped away from music during the 1980s and 1990s to focus on her family. She returned in 2004 with Simple Needs, an album for which she wrote all the material. That same year she appeared on a PBS special dedicated to 1970s soul music, performing "If I Can't Have You." In 2014, she reunited with cast members Barry Dennen and Ted Neeley in Verona for a Jesus Christ Superstar anniversary event, and she also recorded a duet with Neeley on "Up Where We Belong" for his EP Rock Opera. In the summer of 2018, she participated in events marking the 45th anniversary of the Jesus Christ Superstar film in Los Angeles.

Elliman's marriage to Bill Oakes lasted from 1972 to 1980. She subsequently married songwriter Wade Hyman in 1981; they had two children, Sage, born in 1982, and Ben, born in 1986, before separating and divorcing. She married Allen Alexander in 2016. In August 2017, Elliman and her husband were stopped by customs in Guam, where she had been scheduled to perform at a Catholic school charity event, and were found in possession of marijuana and methamphetamine. After spending a night in jail, both pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, completed the planned concert, and returned to Hawaii on probation pending a March 2018 sentencing. They were ultimately ordered to perform community service and to observe courtroom proceedings of a drug offender probation program in Honolulu.