Apparently, when Norman Greenbaum wrote today’s song of the day, he wasn’t quite writing a parody but, at the same time, he wasn’t being totally serious either.  Greenbaum wrote the song after watching a gospel performance on television and thinking, “Yeah, I could do that.”  By his own recollection, it took him 15 minutes to come up with the lyrics for Spirit In The Sky.

Originally, he was going to perform the song with a jug band.  (Yikes!)  He also tried to do a folk version.  (Double yikes!)  Fortunately, he ultimately went for the hard rock sound that made the song a legend.