One of my all time favorite singles from my youth was Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in The Sky." I had the 45 rpm (revolutions per minute for today's potentially uninitiated) record in 1970 on Reprise Records and I still have that very same banged up piece of vinyl to this day. I loved everything about this song, but then again I wasn't smart enough at 10 years of age to know it had religious overtones. I'm a Golden Rule kind of guy when it comes to religion. The only type of extremist I am is someone who politely removes himself from conversations that involve religion or politics. What a happy place the world would be without these hot topics huh? "Spirit in The Sky" is more of a faith song than it is any type of gospel endorsement. Norman Greenbaum is said to be of Jewish decent even though "Spirit" would seem to be more of a Christian rock song than anything else. Not that this 10 year old cared. It was a great song and still sounds great to this day even if a little dated.Norman Greenbaum was a Malden, MA native as a young man and studied music at Boston University of all places. What? No Berklee College of Music? Don't most folks go to B.U. to become Doctor's (I knew there was a tie in here somewhere...sometimes you just get lucky!) or Lawyers? What do I know? I went to Emerson College and now I sell things and blog about nothing for free. Idiot. Should have just made a beeline for Babson College or some other business school and rewritten the history of my 22-38 age wasted youth. Hindsight is wicked isn't it? Do you folks cringe when you get your Social Security statements and see what you made annually in your twenties? No? Maybe it's just me then. I had a rockin' good time though, I can assure you of that. Anyway, Greenbaum's "Spirit in The Sky" sold over 2 million copies before 1970 had ended. Apparently Norman was not very enamored of the publicity surrounding his successful single even though he allegedly lip synched "Spirit in The Sky" on Dick Clark's American Bandstand that year. He moved to California in 1971 and hasn't been heard from since according to his Wikipedia page. That'll cement your one hit wonder status I guess.
A former London based DJ named Clive Jackson put together a band called Doctor & The Medics in the early 80's. Andy Partridge of XTC fame was lending a hand producing some of their records and in 1986 they released a cover of "Spirit in The Sky" on a record called Laughing at The Pieces. The single went to number one in 32 countries if you can believe Wikipedia. How does that happen? I know the song was good, but number one? In 32 countries? They say Norman Greenbaum lives off the royalties of his records, as in plural, which shocked me. Singles cost 79 cents in 1970 so I can't imagine what ten percent of 2 million is (math major he is not), but that money should have run out eons ago right? Enter the good Doctor and now it all makes dollars and cents I guess. Doctor & The Medics will not go down in history as one of rock's finest groups, but at least they had good taste in covers. There is not much to separate the two songs, and for a change I'm posting both versions, but I had no complaints at the time. I dutifully added the Doctor's version to my legendary (in my mind of course) mixed cassette tapes to bring an oldie into the 80's. Now this version is ancient. Pretty funny huh? If you are like me you'll like both versions. Talk soon.
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