Greenbaum explained that he signed a standard writer’s contract, which specified that the publishing rights were owned by his producer, but he was always entitled to half of the rights. “Up until then, the benefits to me from the song were non-existent,” he said. But because of the renewed interest and use of the song, he hasn’t had to work again. When this writer first interviewed Greenbaum in 1985, he was working as a cook at a Petaluma restaurant owned by a friend. To date, “Spirit in the Sky” has been used in more than 60 movies, numerous television shows and dozens of commercials, including American Express, Toyota and Nike. “But all of a sudden it started to become this hugely wanted song and it has had this great resurgence.” “The song had been semi-dead as a one-hit wonder for years,” said Greenbaum, 77, in a recent phone interview from his Santa Rosa home.
Over the next few years, Greenbaum’s original version began to appear in movies such as “Apollo 13,” “Remember the Titans” and “Wayne’s World 2.” Two British bands, Doctor & the Medics and Gareth Gates, covered the song in 19, respectively, and both versions went to No. He returned to Los Angeles for a while, but then walked away from the music business and has lived in Sonoma County since.īut “Spirit in the Sky” never really went away, and in the late 1980s, it started to take on a new life. Greenbaum was never able to duplicate the success of “Spirit in the Sky,” although he did record two follow-up albums, “Back Home Again” and “Petaluma” for Warner Brothers. 1 on the Cashbox music charts in May 1970.Īt that time, Norman Greenbaum - the song’s composer and performer - had settled on a farm in Penngrove with his then-wife and two young children and was trying to come up with another hit song. With its distinctive fuzz-tone guitar, boogie-rock beat and gospel lyrics, the song peaked at No. Fifty years after it was released, “Spirit in the Sky” continues to be one of the most recognizable and enduring songs in rock ’n’ roll history.
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