Followers

Friday, November 5, 2010

Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky




"Spirit in the Sky" is a song written and originally recorded by Norman Greenbaum and released in 1969. The single sold two million copies in 1969 and 1970 and reached number three in the U.S. Billboard chart, as well as number one on the UK, Australian and Canadian charts in 1970. Rolling Stone ranked "Spirit in the Sky" #333 on their list of the 500 Greatest songs of all time. The song was featured on the 1969 album of the same name.

Greenbaum had previously been a member of psychedelic band Dr West's Medicine Show and Junk Band. When they split up he won a solo contract with producer Erik Jacobsen, who had previously worked successfully with The Lovin Spoonful. He was inspired to write the song after watching Porter Wagoner on TV singing a gospel song. Greenbaum later said : "I thought, 'Yeah, I could do that,' knowing nothing about gospel music, so I sat down and wrote my own gospel song. It came easy. I wrote the words in 15 minutes."
"Spirit in the Sky" contains lyrics about the afterlife, making several references to Jesus. However, Greenbaum, who is Jewish, stated that he had no particular religious intentions with the song.

33 comments:

Green_Magix said...

Great song mate! Thanks for the video!

Anonymous said...

i have this on my ipod i like it

Savage Nugget said...

O wow Classic. :D

Jim said...

Great song. Reminded me to put it on my ipod.

Buff Drinklots said...

Thanks for the music, my man.

Anonymous said...

really great song :)
i'm putting it now on my ipod

trashpandas said...

This is on Rock Band 2. While I don't mind listening to it, I HATE playing it. lol.

Anonymous said...

really great stuff got to check it out :D

Matte said...

Cool song!

Bob said...

I nostalgiad hard, thanks for the song.

The Greater Spartan said...

Nice tunes :P

RoodNverse said...

CLassic

Mez said...

nice track!

Kichuwa said...

Love this song.

JohnnyShams said...

Great song!

Nerd Life said...

love this song!

Light Weight Baby! said...

thanks for sharing this

Jimmy Volmer said...

good stuff! xD

Life Saver said...

that's a cool track

Discerning Gentleman said...

nice!

Willow said...

Another classic!

Lewis said...

superb song bro :)

Dr. Mesothelioma said...

can't wait until your next post!!

Randy said...

I showed my friends your post and they enjoyed it! Keep them coming!

! WALLPAPERS BY ERDNUSS2 ! said...

nice, love it!!

Kimokik said...

great song, classic.

Campino said...

good music

tigey said...

Good song, man, good song

Come At Me Bro said...

This is sweet!

scorpion taco said...

cool song bro!

Lemmiwinks said...

i like bauhaus version better.

gnjili shepard said...

wicked track

SC2 Strats said...

sweet song.