Spirit in the Sky

As Norman Greenbaum explained to Songfacts, he set out to write a religious rock song. He is Jewish, but instead of using a Jewish word for God, he used "Jesus" because he thought it would be more marketable. It took months for Greenbaum to finish the music, but the lyrics came really quickly. Interesting fact we also learned about Norman: he used to run a goat farm.

The original inspiration for this was a song about a preacher by country singer Porter Wagoner. Greenbaum was also influenced by folk revival music and traditional southern blues.

Greenbaum began his musical career while a student at Boston University, playing area coffeehouses before relocating to the West Coast during the mid-'60s and forming Dr. West's Medicine Show and Jugband. The now-defunct band had one hit, "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago," and broke up in 1968. The group was characterized as a psychedelic jug band - "jugs" like Southern moonshiners used were blown to make sound. The band also used a wash tub bass.