Spirit in the Sky
1969
Spirit in the Sky is (English for spirit in the sky) a song by the American musician Norman Greenbaum, published in 1969. It reached high chart positions internationally in early 1970 and became a worldwide hit. The album, on which the one-hit -wonder was published, had the same name.
Formation
After putting in the second half of the 1960s, the American psychedelic quartet Dr. West 's Medicine Show and Junk had separated band whose member was Greenbaum, he signed a contract with the then already quite successful producer Erik Jacobsen. He then began work on his first solo album.
The idea for the song came to him when he evening on television Porter Wagoner, an American country music singer, see. This sang a moving gospel song about forgiveness and redemption. Although Greenbaum had no experience with gospel songs, the lyrics of the song he easily fell from his hand, which he wrote in 15 minutes by his own admission.
It was different with the music for the song: First, he tried it musically in a Jug Band version, with Delta Blues and Folk with, but he did not hit the right sound he had imagined. During the studio recording of the producer The Stovall Sisters, a gospel trio, who took over the background vocals committed. Greenbaum even put his acoustic guitar aside and made use of an aggressive -sounding electric guitar Fender Telecaster with built-in distortion. The result was a combination of hard rock and gospel with a continuous gossip rhythm.
First, two other songs from Greenbaum's solo album was released, but with limited success. The third single was followed by Spirit in the Sky. Greenbaum stated to the fact that initially resisting the song was excited because he was around four minutes long. In addition, the song was uncanny: He, as a musician with Orthodox Jewish roots, sing about Jesus, and a distorted sound that you do not get out of his head.
Music style and content
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The song is a mix of psychedelic rock, which reached towards the end of the 1960s its peak, and gospel music from the turn of the century from the 19th to the 20th century. Although Greenbaum denied a religious intention, content, but the piece is colored religious, what is clear from the lyrics. It says, for example:
"Prepare yourself you know it 's a must Gotta have a friend in Jesus So you know that When You the He's gonna recommend you to the spirit in the sky "
Successes and reception
Spirit in the Sky reached # 1 on the charts in Germany, Great Britain, Canada and Australia. In the U.S., the song reached # 3 on the charts as the best position. Overall, it persisted for 14 weeks in the American Top 40 The single sold in 1969 and 1970, more than two million times, alone in May 1970, a million times.
Starting in 1987, the work of a renaissance learned: First, it was the soundtrack for the film The dream girl of Beverly Hills ( Maid to Order), later for Apollo 13 (1995) and Contact ( 1997) used. Overall, the song was used in 32 films as a soundtrack and in more than a dozen American television commercials as recognition or background music (among other things in advertising films for the sporting goods manufacturer Nike and the car manufacturer Toyota).
The song can be found on over 50 compilation albums and was often gecovert, including 1985 by Nina Hagen and 1994 by Elton John. Successful cover versions by Doctor & the Medics in 1986 and Gareth Gates in 2003. Both cover versions were each made it to No. 1 on the British charts. Spirit in the Sky thus stood in the UK in three different decades with three different artists for periods of several weeks at the top of the charts.
The Rolling Stone magazine placed the song in 2004 on the site of his 333 top 500 songs of all time, currently occupied the title space 341