For more than half a century, Norman Greenbaum’s 1969 anthem “Spirit in the Sky” has captivated listeners of all generations with its euphoric energy and bold, genre-bending sound. Now, Craft Recordings celebrates the song’s era-defying legacy with two special releases: a brand-new Dolby Atmos® mix of the single available to stream/download today, and a vinyl reissue of Greenbaum’s kaleidoscopic debut album, Spirit in the Sky, arriving June 13.
Long out-of-print, Greenbaum’s 1969 debut returns to vinyl in a replica tip-on jacket with lacquers cut from the original tapes (AAA) by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. Anchored by its beloved, iconic title track, “Spirit in the Sky,” the album fuses rock, gospel, and psychedelia, featuring hidden gems like “Marcy,” “Tars Of India,” and “Skyline” that highlight Greenbaum’s distinctive songwriting style. Meanwhile, the Dolby Atmos single gives fans an opportunity to experience “Spirit in the Sky” in transcendent spatial audio.
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Fueled by one of the most unforgettable guitar hooks in music history, the single “Spirit in the Sky” premiered in December 1969 and soon reached the No. 1 spot on charts across the globe, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ireland, the U.K., and Germany. Eventually selling over two million copies worldwide, the gold-certified track marked a major commercial and creative breakthrough for Greenbaum, fusing elements of rock & roll, gospel, pop, and psychedelia with a daring originality way ahead of its time.
A Massachusetts native who got his start performing in Boston coffeehouses, Greenbaum launched his career with the formation of Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band — a short-lived, Los Angeles-based psychedelic jug band whose 1966 single “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago” reached No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100. Soon after the band’s dissolution, Greenbaum played a gig at The Troubadour in West Hollywood and caught the attention of producer Erik Jacobsen (known for his work on The Lovin’ Spoonful’s hit singles “Do You Believe in Magic,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” and more). With Jacobsen at the helm as producer, Greenbaum soon set to work on Spirit in the Sky.
As he revealed in a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, Greenbaum borrowed the title to “Spirit in the Sky” from a greeting card. After watching an episode of The Porter Wagoner Show, he composed the song’s lyrics in just 15 minutes, mining inspiration from Wagoner’s performance of a country gospel tune titled “Pastor’s Absent on Vacation.” Although conceived as a folk song, “Spirit in the Sky” took on an entirely new life in the studio, thanks in part to Greenbaum’s use of a Fender Telecaster with a fuzz box built directly into the guitar’s body. To accentuate the song’s gospel roots, Greenbaum and Jacobsen enlisted a Kentucky-born gospel trio called The Stovall Sisters, whose stratospheric harmonies provide a glorious counterpart to the track’s pulsating rhythms and fuzzed-out guitar tones.
Released via Reprise Records, “Spirit in the Sky” was initially met with apprehension from the label, due to its potentially controversial religious references as well as its unconventional length (the track clocks in at just over four minutes, at a time when pop hits averaged two minutes and 30 seconds). Despite that resistance, the song emerged as a global smash and gave Greenbaum his first hit on the Top 40 charts, where it held strong for 14 weeks.
A largely undiscovered gem released in October 1969, Spirit in the Skyshows the tremendous depth and scope of Greenbaum’s musicality, opening on the horn-driven R&B-funk of “Junior Cadillac” and closing out with the spacey psych-pop of “Marcy” (a sublimely loopy number hailed as a “great lost album track” by legendary rock critic Robert Christgau in a glowing review of the LP). Encompassing everything from groove-heavy country-rock to soul-soothing AM pop, the 10-song powerhouse ultimately serves as an alluring first entry in an eclectic solo catalog that also includes 1970’s Back Home Again and 1972’s Petaluma.
Since “Spirit in the Sky” first stormed its way up the charts, the song has made an indelible mark on pop culture and appeared in countless ads, TV shows, and films (including The Simpsons, Guardians of the Galaxy, Apollo 13, Wayne’s World 2, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Ocean’s Eleven, Miami Blues, Remember the Titans, and Suicide Squad, to name just a few). The song has been sampled by artists including pop-punk pioneers Fall Out Boy (“I Don’t Care”), and covered by Elton John, Bauhaus, Gareth Gates, William Shatner, Doctor and the Medics, and more. Additionally, “Spirit in the Sky” is among a rare group of songs to have topped the UK Singles Chart three times, each with a different version: first in 1970 with Greenbaum’s original recording, then in 1986 via Doctor and the Medics, and in 2003 thanks to Pop Idol’s Gareth Gates—underscoring the song’s status as a perennial favorite spanning generations and genres. Praised as “proto-glam” by music historian Simon Reynolds and widely recognized for its sonic ingenuity, “Spirit in the Sky” also appears on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.
Norman Greenbaum reflects, “I'm humbled and deeply grateful that “Spirit in the Sky" continues to connect with people. It means so much that people have taken the song to heart, and I'm excited to see its journey continue."
Tracklist:
Side A:
1. Junior Cadillac
2. Spirit in the Sky
3. Skyline
4. Jubilee
5. Alice Bodine
Side B:
1. Tars Of India
2. The Power
3. Good Lookin' Woman
4. Milk Cow
5. Marcy
