Fact #182260
When:
Short story:
Norman Greenbaum releases a new single, Spi rit In The Sky, in the UK.
Full article:
The answer to the age old conundrum, ‘Which came first, the chicken farm or the eggplant?’ is, undeniably, Norman Greenbaum.
Back in 1966, as leader of Boston’s fleetingly fashionable psychedelic jug band, Dr West’s Medicine Show And Junk Band, Norman Greenbaum enjoyed his first brief brush with fame, when the band soared effortlessly to No52 on Billboard chart with their novelty single, The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.
When Dr West failed to secure a suitable follow-up, Norm took his royalties and headed for Los Angeles, where he and his missus started a chicken farm, with a few goats. And some pigs. And a llama. But Los Angeles is the wrong place to go for those seeking to get the music business out of their blood, and Norm soon fell in with producer Erik Jacobsen. Having worked with The Lovin’ Spoonful and Sopwith Camel, Jacobsen had a well-developed taste for the more bizarre end of the jug-band spectrum.
Greenbaum had an idea for a slice of quasi-religious rock whimsy he called Spirit In The Sky, which included the line ‘I’ve got a friend in Jesus’ - intriguing to say the least from a Jew. “I was moved to write a gospel type song,” he explains, “because of the influence of country singer, Porter Waggoner, who always ended his television show with a gospel number.” In Waggoner’s song, a salvation seeker fails to find the Lord because the local preacher is on holiday, so Greenbaum resolved that, in his song, things would work out better.
He and Jacobsen took into Coast Recorders, Los Angeles, in the autumn of 1969. “I was unsatisfied with my early attempts at the song, until I tried it out with a southern boogie music beat. That one did it for me.” As it happened, former Sopwith Camel guitarist Bill Sievers was now living with Jacobsen, so he participated in the sessions. “Being a fan of gospel music,” recalls Sievers, “I suggested that some gospel singers might sound real good on Spirit In the Sky, adding a needed level of authenticity. My search for authenticity led me to a gospel church in Oakland where I found a trio known as the Stovall Sisters. We put the Stovalls on the record, and the rest is history.”
Enthusiastic as Greenbaum and Jacobsen were about the way the track was developing, not everyone at Coast Recorders shared their enthusiasm. “The engineer at the sessions was named Lanky for the obvious reason,” says Greenbaum, “and his favourite phrase was, ‘It's close enough for Jazz’, because he hated doing all those retakes we wanted.”
Late in the year, the track appeared on Greenbaum solo debut album, and was subsequently pulled off as a single. The American public, however, reacted with the same enthusiasm as Lanky had. “It was almost a dud,” acknowledges Greenbaum, “but there were still some people at Reprise Records who believed in it, and they kept taking it back to the radio deejays and promoting it and, eventually, it took off.”
With interest building in the US, Reprise secured a UK release for the single on 28 February 1970, and it entered the charts on both sides of the Atlantic the following month, peaking at No1 in the UK and No3 in the US, and becoming Warner Brothers’ biggest selling single to that date.
“Spirit In The Sky made my life and destroyed my life at the same moment,” reflected Greenbaum in late 1999. “It became number 1 just about around the world, or at least top 5. I went on tour, opened for some big acts, such as Moody Blues and then went on to headline myself. One thrill was appearing on TV shows like American Bandstand and meeting legendary figures like Dick Clark.”
But the song’s distinctiveness, feels Greenbaum, became his curse. “People wanted another Spirit In The Sky from me, and it couldn’t be. That song was too special.” As had been the case with The Eggplant That Ate Chicago, Greenbaum simply couldn’t replicate the elusive quality that had made Spirit In The Sky a smash. As his record sales began the inevitable downward curve, he retired back to the chicken farm, but then split with his wife, became a short-order cook, and eventually turned into something of a recluse, refusing to speak to the media about his former success.
But the song refused to lie down, and continued to provide Greenbaum with a small but steady income, not only from the successful 1986 UK cover version by Dr And The Medics, but from its use in movies, including Apollo 13, Wayne’s World 2 and Contact, plus lucrative tv commercials like American Express, Chrysler and Bell Telephones.
Greenbaum’s health, however, did not continue to match his bank balance. By the mid-90’s he was suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and, having broken his legs twice, claimed to have, “so much metal in my legs that I can pick up the re-runs of Wolfman Jack broadcasts from del Rio, Texas, USA.”
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Back in 1966, as leader of Boston’s fleetingly fashionable psychedelic jug band, Dr West’s Medicine Show And Junk Band, Norman Greenbaum enjoyed his first brief brush with fame, when the band soared effortlessly to No52 on Billboard chart with their novelty single, The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.
When Dr West failed to secure a suitable follow-up, Norm took his royalties and headed for Los Angeles, where he and his missus started a chicken farm, with a few goats. And some pigs. And a llama. But Los Angeles is the wrong place to go for those seeking to get the music business out of their blood, and Norm soon fell in with producer Erik Jacobsen. Having worked with The Lovin’ Spoonful and Sopwith Camel, Jacobsen had a well-developed taste for the more bizarre end of the jug-band spectrum.
Greenbaum had an idea for a slice of quasi-religious rock whimsy he called Spirit In The Sky, which included the line ‘I’ve got a friend in Jesus’ - intriguing to say the least from a Jew. “I was moved to write a gospel type song,” he explains, “because of the influence of country singer, Porter Waggoner, who always ended his television show with a gospel number.” In Waggoner’s song, a salvation seeker fails to find the Lord because the local preacher is on holiday, so Greenbaum resolved that, in his song, things would work out better.
He and Jacobsen took into Coast Recorders, Los Angeles, in the autumn of 1969. “I was unsatisfied with my early attempts at the song, until I tried it out with a southern boogie music beat. That one did it for me.” As it happened, former Sopwith Camel guitarist Bill Sievers was now living with Jacobsen, so he participated in the sessions. “Being a fan of gospel music,” recalls Sievers, “I suggested that some gospel singers might sound real good on Spirit In the Sky, adding a needed level of authenticity. My search for authenticity led me to a gospel church in Oakland where I found a trio known as the Stovall Sisters. We put the Stovalls on the record, and the rest is history.”
Enthusiastic as Greenbaum and Jacobsen were about the way the track was developing, not everyone at Coast Recorders shared their enthusiasm. “The engineer at the sessions was named Lanky for the obvious reason,” says Greenbaum, “and his favourite phrase was, ‘It's close enough for Jazz’, because he hated doing all those retakes we wanted.”
Late in the year, the track appeared on Greenbaum solo debut album, and was subsequently pulled off as a single. The American public, however, reacted with the same enthusiasm as Lanky had. “It was almost a dud,” acknowledges Greenbaum, “but there were still some people at Reprise Records who believed in it, and they kept taking it back to the radio deejays and promoting it and, eventually, it took off.”
With interest building in the US, Reprise secured a UK release for the single on 28 February 1970, and it entered the charts on both sides of the Atlantic the following month, peaking at No1 in the UK and No3 in the US, and becoming Warner Brothers’ biggest selling single to that date.
“Spirit In The Sky made my life and destroyed my life at the same moment,” reflected Greenbaum in late 1999. “It became number 1 just about around the world, or at least top 5. I went on tour, opened for some big acts, such as Moody Blues and then went on to headline myself. One thrill was appearing on TV shows like American Bandstand and meeting legendary figures like Dick Clark.”
But the song’s distinctiveness, feels Greenbaum, became his curse. “People wanted another Spirit In The Sky from me, and it couldn’t be. That song was too special.” As had been the case with The Eggplant That Ate Chicago, Greenbaum simply couldn’t replicate the elusive quality that had made Spirit In The Sky a smash. As his record sales began the inevitable downward curve, he retired back to the chicken farm, but then split with his wife, became a short-order cook, and eventually turned into something of a recluse, refusing to speak to the media about his former success.
But the song refused to lie down, and continued to provide Greenbaum with a small but steady income, not only from the successful 1986 UK cover version by Dr And The Medics, but from its use in movies, including Apollo 13, Wayne’s World 2 and Contact, plus lucrative tv commercials like American Express, Chrysler and Bell Telephones.
Greenbaum’s health, however, did not continue to match his bank balance. By the mid-90’s he was suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and, having broken his legs twice, claimed to have, “so much metal in my legs that I can pick up the re-runs of Wolfman Jack broadcasts from del Rio, Texas, USA.”