by Jason Ankeny
Best-known for his 1970 hit Spirit in the Sky, singer/songwriter Norman Greenbaum was born November 20, 1942, in Malden, MA. He began his musical career while a student at Boston University, playing area coffeehouses before relocating to the West Coast during the mid-60s and forming a kind of psychedelic jug band dubbed Dr. Wests Medicine Show and Junk Band. After issuing the 1966 single The Eggplant That Ate Chicago, which fell just shy of reaching the Top 50, the group disbanded, and Greenbaum subsequently formed a series of short-lived acts before finally returning to his solo career in 1968. A year later he issued his debut LP, Spirit in the Sky, releasing several unsuccessful singles before reaching the Top Three with the smash title track, which sold some two million copies. It proved to be Greenbaums only hit, however, as follow-ups like 1970s Canned Ham and the next years California Earthquake tanked; after the release of 1972s Petaluma, he retreated from music to focus on his California dairy farm, but returned to show business during the mid-80s in a managerial capacity, also promoting a number of concerts.