MORE THAN 40 years after he first played "Spirit in the Sky" in his record producer's Mill Valley backyard, Norman Greenbaum, who celebrates his 70th birthday this month, is comfortable in the knowledge that his one and only hit is likely to live on long after he and the rest of the '60s generation are gone.

"That song has taken on a life of its own," Greenbaum told me the other day from his apartment in Sonoma County. "It resonates. It stays in people's heads. It has its own force. I'd like to say I wrote the greatest frigging song on Earth, but I didn't. The song itself took over."

When Warner Bros. reluctantly released "Spirit in the Sky" as a single, it surprised everyone by selling more than 2 million copies, rocketing to the top of the pop charts in 1970. And Greenbaum's fuzz box lead guitar lick on the song would become one of the most instantly recognizable in rock, right up there with Keith Richards' famed guitar line on "Satisfaction."

"At first, the record company hated the song," the now white-haired rock legend recalled. "They said it was too long. They were gonna pull it off radio playlists, but then the miracle happened. Within two weeks it was No. 1. The song has miracles in it."

Resurrected during the nostalgia craze of the 1980s, "Spirit in the Sky" has been used in more than 40 movie soundtracks, including "Ocean's 11," "Wayne's World 2" and "Apollo 13."

On the small screen, it's been played on more than two dozen TV shows, among them "The Office," "Law & Order" and "Big Love," plus commercials for Toyota, Nike and Gatorade, to name a few.

It's also been a popular song at funerals, including the funeral of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Before that resurgence, Greenbaum had given up music and was working as the kitchen manager for the now defunct Jerome's Mesquite Barbecue restaurant in Petaluma.

"All of a sudden I didn't have to work anymore," he said, still sounding astonished at his good fortune. "I'm not rich or anything, but it gets me by."

Greenbaum was a young, long-haired singer-songwriter hoping to pen a hit song and become a rock star when Marin record producer Erik Jacobsen heard him at the Troubadour in L.A. with Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band, a wild, psychedelic outfit best known for the minor 1966 novelty hit "The Eggplant that Ate Chicago," written by Greenbaum.

"He played me some songs and I thought, 'What an interesting guy,'" Jacobsen remembered.

Jacobsen, who had already produced the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe In Magic," "Daydream" and "Summer in the City," was impressed by Greenbaum's songwriting and invited him to come to Marin to work on an album.

Inspired by country music TV star Porter Wagoner's gospel songs, Greenbaum, who's Jewish, had been working on "Spirit in the Sky" for some time. The last verse goes:

"Prepare yourself/You know it's a must/Gotta have a friend in Jesus/So you know that when you die/He's gonna recommend you to the spirit in the sky."

"The first time I heard it was in the backyard of my house on Panoramic in Mill Valley," Jacobsen recalled.

He took Greenbaum into Coast Recorders in San Francisco, hiring the drummer and guitarist from the band Sopwith Camel to back him up on the song.

When the recording engineer called in sick, Jacobsen ran the session without him, using some cheap microphones and no baffles to separate the musicians.

"It wasn't a clean recording whatsoever, but that's what was so great about it," Jacobsen said, chuckling. He later added hand claps, the Stovall Sisters as backup singers and another guitarist to fill out the sound, overdubbing Greenbaum's lead vocal.

"Everybody heard it on the radio," Jacobsen recalled. "Everybody wanted it. It was a huge smash."

With his new found success, Greenbaum moved onto a little farm in Penngrove, near Petaluma, with his girlfriend and produced his own brand of goat's milk for a time. He put out another album, titled "Petaluma," but he couldn't get lightning to strike twice.

"It was a flop," he said. "Then I was called a one-hit wonder. I continued to play for years, but I always had that one-hit wonder stigma. So I gave up music for a long time. I stopped playing entirely."

As he turns 70, though, Greenbaum is being rediscovered once again. He'll be honored on Nov. 18 with a birthday bash at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, singing "Spirit in the Sky" with the Stovall Sisters, who were on the original recording, and the San Francisco Music Club. The evening also will feature guest appearances by Rita Abrams, singing her "Mill Valley" song; Dan Hicks, Dr. Elmo, Jimmy Dillon, Lorin Rowan, David Laflamme and Terry Haggerty.

More than four decades after "Spirit in the Sky" was a hit, fans still write to Greenbaum, thanking him for a song that continues to give generation after generation comfort and solace.

"People play it at their funerals," he said, his voice cracking with emotion. "They stand up and clap their hands. They write and tell me, 'It got us through hard times.' It makes me cry."          

Contact Paul Liberatore via email at; follow him on Twitter at

if you go

What: Spirit of '70 — Norman Greenbaum's Birthday Bash
Where: Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18
Admission: $27
Information: 388-3850;