< The Chart Show Top 20 11-19-09 | Main | Friday Coffee Break: Viernes No Ingles! >

Today In Music History: He Wrote The Religious Song That Wasn't

Posted at 6:05 AM on November 20, 2009 by Steve Seel
Filed under: Music History

Birthdays:

Singer/guitarist Joe Walsh is 62.
Rapper Mike D of the Beastie Boys is 44.
Bassist Jared Followill of Kings of Leon is 23.

Today in:

1970 - Kinks singer Ray Davies re-recorded one word for the single "Apeman." The song contained the word "foggin'," which sounded too much like an expletive.
1973 - Who drummer Keith Moon collapsed twice during a concert in San Francisco, apparently because of jet lag. Guitarist Pete Townshend asked for a volunteer from the audience to finish the set -- and got one.
1990 - The two performers known as Milli Vanilli held a press conference to discuss the lip-synching scandal that cost them their Grammy. Rob Pilatus (pih-LAY'-tuhs) told kids to get a good lawyer if they want to get into show business.
1994 - Musician David Crosby got a liver transplant.

Today's highlight:

Singer Norman Greenbaum is 67 today; his big hit, released in 1969 was "Spirit In The Sky." He was inspired to write the song after watching Porter Wagoner on TV singing a gospel song. Greenbaum later said, "I thought, 'Yeah, I could do that,' knowing nothing about gospel music, so I sat down and wrote my own gospel song. It came easy. I wrote the words in 15 minutes." "Spirit in the Sky" contains lyrics about the afterlife, making several references to Jesus. However, Greenbaum, who is Jewish, stated that he had no particular religious intentions with the song.

November 2009
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Master Archive