“People hear the name Norman Greenbaum and they say, ‘Who?’,” notes the singer from his adopted California home.  But they hear the words ‘Spirit in the Sky’ and they say, ‘Oh yeah, I love that!’”

Greenbaum may be a one-hit wonder, but it’s a heck of a hit. “Spirit in the Sky” is not only a rock classic, it’s easily the best Jesus song ever written by a Jewish kid from Malden. This week sees a vinyl reissue of the album of the same name — the first of only three that Greenbaum made in the early ‘70s — on the collector-friendly Craft Recordings label. With a mix of country, folk and psychedelic rock, the album easily proves he had more than one memorable tune up his sleeve.

Reached for an interview this week, Greenbaum recalled his Boston University roots. “They sure didn’t have coffeehouses in Malden, so I used to hang around Kenmore Square and see all the folksingers who came from Greenwich Village to play the college circuit. I remember hanging out a lot with (legendary Boston DJ) Arnie ‘Woo Woo’ Ginsburg — That was really all I did at school. I wanted to get out to Hollywood, the weather was certainly better. They had the blonde girls, the beaches and the Beach Boys.”

In LA he formed Dr. West’s Medicine Show & Junk Band, which had the good-timey jug-band sound that was in vogue with folkies at the time; they even hit the national charts with “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago.” Getting from there to “Spirit in the Sky” involved a few lucky accidents, he said — the first being a postcard he found at a flea market, with that phrase on a photo of Native Americans praying. Then he turned on the TV and saw country star Porter Wagoner. “Halfway through every show he’d do a gospel song and I found that really interesting, So I wanted to write a religious song, and I thought of the idea that everybody wants to go to heaven; even bad cowboys want to be buried with their boots on. They’d go to church and confess their sins. And I thought ‘Well, I’ve never been a sinner’ “— he says, quoting the lyric.

The final piece fell into place when he fired up a homemade fuzzbox that his lead guitarist had built. “Nobody else was doing anything like that. It sounds big but there are only four people on that record, plus the gospel singers that we added later. And the record was four minutes long, which is way too long for AM radio, but we couldn’t make it any shorter. We knew in the studio that we had a hit, since it was so likable and memorable.”

But Greenbaum sealed his commercial fate when he offered the quirky “Canned Ham” as a followup. Though the record was big fun, you just didn’t follow a song about Jesus with one about ham. “I blew peoples’ minds again with that one — the label said, ‘Greenbaum, what are you doing?’ But I thought it should have been bigger.” He made two more Warners albums before getting dropped. “People think I went off to be a farmer but that was more my wife’s deal; I was still a musician. But when the ‘80s started I didn’t fit into anything.”

That changed when the UK band Doctor and the Medics covered “Spirit in the Sky“ and it topped the UK charts in ’86; there have since been many more covers and movie placements. “I remember talking to the singer from Doctor and the Medics. He told me that his wife’s maiden name was West and I used to be called Dr. West, so we’re kind of related.” Now 84, Greenbaum still makes occasional live appearances, including a recent one at the Grand Ole Opry. “When I did that, someone in Nashville told me I was the grandfather of Americana. That sounded pretty good.”