Norman Greenbaum (born November 20, 1942, Malden, Massachusetts, United States) is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known for writing and performing his hit song Spirit in the Sky, which sold two million copies in 1969 and 1970. Speaking with Songfacts about the song, Greenbaum said he set out to write a religious rock song, and he is Jewish. Instead of using a Jewish word for God, he used "Jesus" because he thought it would be more marketable. It took months for Greenbaum to finish the music, but the lyrics came really quickly. Read more about Norman Greenbaum on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.