April 1970 - Toronto CHUM chart highest position: 4
This song is famous for its memorable fuzz-tone guitar riff. I would venture that anyone who has heard it remembers it. I don't love this song that much but that riff is awesome.
Norman Greenbaum (born 1942) was from Malden, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. In 1965, he dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles. In the late 1960s, he was the leader of Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band. They reached #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 with "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago", which was a bit of whimsy that reminded me of The Bonzo Dog Band (though, sadly, it's not as good).
Greenbaum decided to go solo after that and wrote "Spirit In The Sky", which was inspired by Westerns in which the hero died with his boots on and by a Christian-themed song that Greenbaum watched Porter Wagoner perform on television. He claimed to have written the song in 15 minutes. If so, they were a profitable 15 minutes: the song reached #1 or at least the top five in numerous countries, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 on Toronto's CHUM chart, and sold over two million copies.
This song stirred up controversy among some Christians with the lines "I've never been a sinner / I've never sinned / I've got a friend in Jesus". This runs counter to standard Christian doctrine, which states that everybody is a sinner. Some artists who have covered this song have changed the lyrics.
Greenbaum's followup, "Canned Ham", reached #46 on the Billboard Hot 100; it's cheerfully upbeat and sounds a bit like something from his Dr. West days but lacks a killer guitar riff. Greenbaum eventually produced three solo albums and continued releasing singles up until 1972. He then retired from music and went back to his dairy farm, presumably richer. In later years, he has lived in Santa Rosa, California.
"Spirit In The Sky" was covered by Doctor and the Medics, a British band, in 1986. This is a faithful copy of the original; if anything, the fuzz-tone guitar riff is emphasized. It reached #1 in the UK and Canada but only made it to #69 in the United States.
In 2003, Gareth Gates and the Kumars released their own cover version of "Spirit In The Sky". I found it quite light-hearted and enjoyable, though I don't think I would want to listen to it often; it reminded me of the Madchester sound of the late 1980s. It was the official Comic Relief charity single for 2003 and reached #1 in Britain, becoming the third version of the song to top the charts there.
Created May 20, 2026.