Norman Greenbaum

Norman Greenbaum, the singer and songwriter born in Malden, Massachusetts, on November 20, 1942, gained his greatest recognition from the 1970 chart success "Spirit in the Sky." While enrolled at Boston University he launched his performing life by appearing in local coffeehouses, then moved to the West Coast in the middle of the 1960s and assembled the psychedelic jug ensemble known as Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band. The outfit released the 1966 single "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago," which stopped just short of the Top 50; once the group dissolved, Greenbaum assembled several fleeting projects before resuming work as a solo artist in 1968. The following year he delivered his first full-length album, also titled Spirit in the Sky, and after a string of modest singles he climbed to the Top Three with the album's title song, a track that moved roughly two million copies. No subsequent release matched that peak; both the 1970 offering "Canned Ham" and the 1971 track "California Earthquake" failed to register, and after Petaluma appeared in 1972 he stepped away from recording to run a dairy operation in California. Show-business ties resumed in the mid-1980s when he took on management duties and began organizing live events.