NORMAN’S SPIRIT IN THE SKY

NORMAN GREENBAUM’S AMAZING HIT & MORE

Remember ‘Spirit In The Sky’? It was one of the most hypnotic pop hits of the Seventies. In fact it was such a wonderful song it has been Number One in the charts three times by three different artists! However, it was the talented Mr. Norman Greenbaum who first created that vocal classic with the fuzzy guitar and hand clapping rhythm.

Norman’s song went to Number One in the UK in March 1970 and was Number 3 in the US Billboard chart that same month. Yet Mr. Greenbaum enjoyed more than one hit during his career and was a prolific writer. All this is celebrated on a spirited new Repertoire 24 track CD compilation ‘Spirit In The Sky: The Best Of Norman Greenbaum’.

The composer was born on November 20, 1942 in Malden, Massachusetts, USA. During the early Sixties he took up folk singing, as did many of his fellow music students at Boston University. In 1965 Norm moved to Los Angeles and formed Dr. West’s Medicine Show And Junk Band. Jug band music dated back to the 1920s and was popular among hippies during the 1960s. It was a fun and easy way to make music and have some fun.

Dr.West’s Medicine went down well and they scored a surprise Top 50 hit with ‘The Egg Plant That Ate Chicago’ in 1966. The group set out on tour appearing with painted faces illuminated by a light show. However, the group broke up in 1967 after failing to score another hit.

In 1968 Greenbaum met producer Eric Jacobsen during a visit to The Troubadour in New York. Jacobsen had produced Tim Hardin’s first album and arranged the music for ‘Tim Hardin 2.’ Eric also produced the first two albums by the Lovin’ Spoonful and worked with The Charlatans and Sopwith Camel

When he met Greenbaum the singer had retired from music and was running a dairy farm. However, Norman was encouraged to return to the studios to record tracks for an album called ‘The Spirit In The Sky’. Two singles flopped but when the title song was released it rocketed up the charts. A Number One in the UK it stayed on the bestseller lists for 20 weeks and was a big hit in Germany and throughout Europe. The worldwide million-seller took Norman by surprise and he seemed quite dazed by success when I met him in a London hotel in 1970.

He felt that its success was due to heartfelt lyrics, which seemed to offer comfort in times of loss, despite the novelty nature of the production. ‘When I die and they lay me to rest, gonna go to the place that’s the best…goin’ up to the spirit in the sky.’
Although Norman never had another hit he produced dozens of atmospheric and inventive songs mostly celebrating his adopted West Coast rural life style.

‘Don’t let that California earthquake scare you away’ he sang. “My advice to you is keep your feet on the ground’. Although ‘California Earthquake’ failed to shake the charts, he wrote a whole bunch of great songs like ‘Lucille Got Stealed’ and ‘Canned Ham’ that are all to be found on our ‘Best Of’ CD.

Greenbaum’s quirky sense of humour is epitomised by titles like ‘Gondoliers, Shakespeares, Overseers, Playboys & Bums’ that was released as a single in 1967. The final song ‘The Day They Sold Beer In Church’ is a lugubrious country ditty that Randy Newman might have enjoyed writing himself.

FRESH SPIRITS

Although Norman’s music career was over by the 1980s his biggest hit wasn’t forgotten. When Doctor And The Medics revived ‘Spirit In The Sky’ their version topped the UK chart in 1986. Singer Clive Jackson was spearheading a psychedelic revival when he formed the group in 1982. He recalls: “We used to play a lot of ‘covers’ including ‘Spirit In The Sky.’ We made a video of the song in a church hall and when it was shown on TV’s Saturday Superstore it shot to Number 1 and sold 2.3 million copies.”

Many ears later Gareth Gates, the ITV Pop Idol released a version with comedy team The Kumars in March 2003 as a single in aid of Comic Relief. Once again the song was a huge hit. ‘Spirit In The Sky’ has also been used on many TV advertisements and in such movies as ‘Contact’, ‘Apollo 13,’ ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and ‘Wayne’s World 2.’ Said Norman in a recent interview: “‘Spirit In The Sky’ sounds as fresh today as when it was first recorded.”
That’s the spirit.

Monday, December 7th, 2009 in Hot New Repertoire Releases.

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