https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/oct/20/norman-greenbaum-spirit-in-the-sky-cook-no-1-jesus

Just been reading this, and the producer mentions that they brought in the Stovall Sisters to work on the song too. Probably well known to most of you, but it was news to me.

Love their track 'Yes to the Lord', so an excuse to pop that in here:

just a quick may be of interest add of the sleeve notes from the lp

THE STOVALL SISTERS - LP NOTES

Side One

HANG ON IN THERE (J. Moss) 3:30 YES TO THE LORD (Moy-Stevenson-Hunter) 2:10 SWEEPIN' THROUGH THE CITY (Traditional adaptation by the Stovalls) 3:10. THE WORLD IS IN A CHANGE (D. Geyer) 3:10 RAPTURE (B. Wright) 4:50

Side Two

SPIRIT IN THE SKY (N. Greenbaum) 2:55. SO GOOD (Traditional-adaptation by the Stovalls) 2:27. THE LOVE OF GOD (L. Crume) 3:24 1 COME TO PRAISE HIM (M. Hollins) 2:58 I'M READY ΤΟ SERVE THE LORD (J. Carmichael and A. Wright) 3:41

THE STOVALL

In the beginning there were Lillian and Netta and Joyce Stovall, ages 5, 7 and 2½ respectively, blend ing their voices on a great big stage as God's Little Wonders while mother Della Stovall watched and listened proudly. The beginning was the 1950s and this three-daughter edition of Mrs. Stovall's 10 children was the latest gospel group to emerge from her household. It subsequently proved to be the strongest and best of all.

Lillian, Netta and Joyce continued as God's Little Wonders for as long as their childhood held out. singing in churches throughout Indianapolis, where they were born. When the Stovalls grew too big to persist as Little Wonders they inherited the mantle of the Valley Wonders from four older sisters whose careers succumbed to marriages. Valley Wonders they remained for five more years.

"You have to sing gospel music out of love," says Joyce Stovall, "because you can't survive just by singing. Della managed them. She booked appearances and negotiated recording contracts for her daughters, who recorded sometimes as the Valley Wonders and sometimes as the Stovall Family faccompanied by two brothers). Nobody got rich or famous. It was all done out of love.

In 1964, the family moved to Oakland, where the girls already seasoned performers finished high school and began worrying about economic survival. They continued to sing in church but the Stovall Sisters had to support themselves with weekday jobs. During this period they broadened their reper toire to include rock and roll and rhythm and blues numbers, which gained them entrance to Oak land area night clubs.

"We were with Ike and Tina Turner for awhile," Lillian Stovall recalls. "I think we were the 18th set of Ikettes. We did a lot of recording sessions, too, but mostly it was club work. We were the Sisters Three when we did rock and roll, but we'd still record for the gospel label as the Valley Wonders or the Stovall Farmily."

Each foray into rock and roll had its end, though, and the Stovall sisters would find themselves back in church singing the music they had grown up with. In 1968 the three girls decided to turn full-time rock and roll professionals. Their initial step in this direction was naive but characteristically direct.

According to Lillian, "We put an ad in the Oakland Tribune Three black girls looking for a Cauca cian band to sing with. And we got more weird calls" Joyce picks up the thread of the story: "The only one who came over and really talked to us was Willian Truckaway. He came right in and sat on the floor like we'd been knowing him for years." Truckaway, who co-produced their Reprise debut album with Erik Jacobsen, asked them to be the background chorus for a single, "Bluegreens." He also introduced them to Jacobsen, who used them behind Norman Greenbaum on "Spirit in the Sky" and "Canned Ham."

These relationships led to the Stovall Sisters' first album. The Stovall Sisters, which signals their emergence from background singers to featured artists. But it also brings them solidly back into the field of gospel music. Joyce is the predominant lead singer on the Stovall Sisters' first

album, a new role for her. "I never sang lead until Erik pushed me into it," she says "None of us were lead singers. Our brothers were leaders. I played piano, stayed in the background and arranged most of the music." Lillian plays tam-bourine and Netta plays bongos and conga drums, but mostly they sing together.

"We three are solidly together," says Joyce. "We've always been inseparable. It's always been that way with our whole family, all eight girls and two boys. We always seem to end up within a two-block radius of each other, within hollering distance"

Insile this tight knit family circle, the even tighter triangle which is the Stovall Sisters lives con stantly within harmonizing distance, a closeness that comes from nearly two decades of performing.

ELETTRE

PRODUCED BY ERIK JACOBSEN AND WILLIAM TRUCKAWAY for Sweet Reliable Productions Recorded in San Francisco Engineered by Russ Gary Art Direction: Ed Thrasher

MUSICIANS Bass: Doug Killmer; Drums: Bill Meeker (except on "Yes to the Lord") Drums: Norman Mayell (only ort Yes to the Lord"), Guitar: Dennis Geyer (except on "So Good"); Guitar: Russell Dashiell (only on "Yes to the Lord" and "So So Good Horns: Ron John Wilmeth, Hart McNee, David Ginsburg and Neil Kantor, Strings: Ed Bogas. Also thanks to these players: Steve Brothers, Joyce sings lead except for Netta on "The World is in a Change" and "I'm Ready"

Reprise Records, a Division of Warner Bros. Records Inc., 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, Calif. 44 East 50th Street, New York, New York 10022 Made in USA. 1971-Warner Bros. Records Inc. RS-6446

Thanks Mike - that fleshes things out!