What Happened To One-Hit Wonder Norman Greenbaum?

Norman Greenbaum already had a fair bit of experience as a musician at the time "Spirit in the Sky" became an unlikely pop hit. In the mid-'60s, he formedDr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band, a psychedelic jug band that reached No. 52 toward the end of 1966 with their only appearance on the Billboard

Norman Greenbaum already had a fair bit of experience as a musician at the time "Spirit in the Sky" became an unlikely pop hit. In the mid-'60s, he formed Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band, a psychedelic jug band that reached No. 52 toward the end of 1966 with their only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, the novelty track "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago." (That's Greenbaum on the extreme left with Dr. West, pictured above.) As a solo artist, Greenbaum's first few singles flopped, but "Spirit in the Sky" turned things around big-time for the singer-songwriter despite concerns that it might be too long or too unorthodox for radio (via The New York Times).

Unfortunately for Greenbaum, his follow-up singles were nowhere as successful or as memorable as "Spirit in the Sky." "Canned Ham" seemingly marked a return to novelty music and only peaked at No. 46 in July 1970. The much heavier "California Earthquake," meanwhile, peaked even lower, topping out at No. 93 in June 1971. He was then dropped by his label, Reprise Records, and by the 1980s, he was making a living as a cook in various restaurants in Northern California, seemingly retired from music after failing to recapture the magic of his only big hit.

"I was broke, what else could I do?" Greenbaum told The New York Times. "You can't write another 'Spirit in the Sky,' so I'll do this. I worked my way up from cooking hamburgers to being a sous chef to being a kitchen manager writing menus and cutting meat. I was O.K. with it."

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