‘I was working as a cook when the movie went to No. 1’: How Norman Greenbaum made Soul in Heaven | culture

Norman Greenbaum, singer, guitarist, songwriter

“Spirit in the Sky” started out as an old blues song I’d been playing since my college days in Boston, but I didn’t know what to do with it. After I moved to Los Angeles, a guy I knew figured out a way to put a fog box inside my Fender Telecaster, creating the distinctive sound of Spirit in the Sky.

I found a greeting card with a picture of some Native Americans praying to the “Spirit in Heaven.” The phrase stuck in my mind. One night I was watching country music on TV, and singer Porter Wagner — who discovered Dolly Parton — was singing a gospel hymn, which gave me the idea to write religious lyrics. Although I came from a semi-religious Jewish family, I wasn’t religious, but I found myself writing Christian lyrics like “When I die and they lay me down, I’ll go to a better place” and “I must have a friend in Jesus.” It came together very quickly.

Shortly after that, I was playing at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles when Eric Jacobsen, the producer of the band Lovin’ Spoonful, walked in. He said he had a production deal with Warner Brothers and was interested in signing me. When we recorded “Spirit in the Sky” for my first album, the final mix gave me goosebumps. Initially, Warner said a four-minute song with lyrics about Jesus would never be played on popular radio, but they eventually relented. In 1969, two million copies were sold. But I couldn’t recreate the success.

In 1986, I was working as a cook when Dr and the Medics brought it back to number one in the UK. Then Gareth Gates’ version of 2003 meant he was No. 1 in three different decades. This has been featured in countless films, including Apollo 13, Oceans 11, and Guardians of the Galaxy. I am 82 years old. A few years ago, I was a passenger in a car accident and spent three weeks in a coma. I feel like I’ve been given another life. Now, every day, I pray and thank the Spirit in Heaven.

Eric Jacobsen, producer

I saw Norman in concert at the Troubadour singing one song, School of Sweet Speech, but he said, “I’ve got a million songs I’d like to play for you.” It turns out he had a little hit called The Eggplant That Ate Chicago with a group called Dr West’s Medicine Show and the Junk Band and he had a whole bunch of crazy songs about goats or chickens or a Chinese guy who ate some acid. I said, “Let’s make some records that someone might like.”

It brought him together with Norman Mael, the drummer from the San Francisco psychedelic group Sopwith Camel, and Doug Kilmer, a bassist who played a lot of black music. Spirit in the Sky’s music originated in an old John Lee Hooker tune called Boogie Chillen’ and set the tone for where the song was going, but the rhythm track seemed too loose. I asked Norman to bring his acoustic guitar and we recorded two demos – each a little different – ​​and made it stereo. Then we brought in the Stovall Singers and their church-style clapping became an essential part of the groove. A guitarist named Russell Dashiell played a solo. By then, the track was sounding massive, but when I heard Norman’s little voice, my heart sank. It wasn’t heavy enough, so I again recorded two demos and put them together. I thought: “Thank God!” It looked amazing.

The song was played a lot on KRLA, a hugely influential radio station, but it came out just before Christmas, when people buy records for others, not themselves, so there were no sales. KRLA ceased its operation. Then, two weeks later in January, 22,000 orders arrived from record stores in Los Angeles. Everyone started playing it again – and it just took off.

The funny thing is that when we went to record it, my engineer was sick but we went ahead anyway with a few small microphones, no headphones and no confusing sound. Every sound was coming from every microphone, but it sounded great. For years people have asked, “How did you get that voice?” I said, “I just pointed the speakers at the drums. I had no idea what I was doing.”