• Norman Greenbaum was kind enough to tell us about this song. 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.
• Interesting fact about Norman: he used to run a goat farm.
• The original inspiration for this was a song about a preacher by country singer Porter Wagoner. Greenbaum was also influenced by folk revival music and traditional southern blues.
• Greenbaum began his musical career while a student at Boston University, playing area coffeehouses before relocating to the West Coast during the mid-'60s and forming Dr. West's Medicine Show and Jugband. The now-defunct band had one hit, "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago," and broke up in 1968. The group was characterized as a psychedelic jug band - "jugs" like Southern moonshiners used were blown to make sound. The band also used a washboard bass.
• Greenbaum told Mojo magazine September 2011 the song is "timeless." "Most everyone else sees it that way," he said. "It appeals to one's inner self and the need for redemption, plus, heck, who wants to go to hell?"
• Greenbaum (from Rolling Stone magazine): "I'm just some Jewish musician who really dug gospel music. I decided there was a larger Jesus gospel market out there than a Jehovah one."
• Greenbaum says that when they mixed this song, they optimized it for car stereo systems, which didn't have a lot of dynamic range. Many years later when songs were often listened to on tiny computer speakers, this came in handy, as you didn't need a subwoofer to appreciate the song.
• Female backup singers on this track were provided by the Stovall Sisters, who were a gospel trio from Indiana. Philip Bailey was a percussionist for the trio before he joined Earth, Wind & Fire.

Thanks for reading!

CATW