If you happen to be in Santa Rosa, CA on February 18th, you can see Norman Greenbaum a rare live appearance.

“I’ll be doing a guest performance of 3 songs with the band Time In A Bottle at The Last Day Saloon in Santa Rosa, CA on February 18th,” says Norman. “My original back-up singers The Stovall Sisters will be joining me, the first time ever this has happened on stage! Time In A Bottle is a local rock/soul band. The Stovall Sisters will also be doing a few of their own songs with the band.”

Recently, Norman Greenbaum also redesigned his official website – www.spiritinthesky.com and if you are looking for his CDs from the sixties and seventies this might be the place to go. You will also find a lot of personal and rare photos for viewing. And of course, Norman tries to stay active and post messages to his fans. There is a lot of people out there that still thinks Spirit in the sky is one of the best songs ever.

The song hit number #1 in the US and UK in 1970. It sold two million copies that year and was named song of the year by Cashbox magazine. Since then, it has been featured in 47 movies and dozens of commercial ads and TV series. In addition, two British cover versions made it to number one on the charts, making the song a three-time number one hit!

General Electric TV ad from 1969.

The ad featured Andrew Victor McLaglen, director of the 20th Century-Fox production The Undefeated with John Wayne: GE color is comparable to the color you see in a movie theater.

The largest TV screen at that point was 23 inches.

A 1969 photo of Tamara Dobson (1944 – 2006) by Richard Avedon (1923 – 2004).

Richard Avedon was voted one of the ten greatest photographers in the world by Popular Photography magazine, and in 1989 received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London. He worked for Harper’s Bazaar in the sixties, but left for Vogue magazine in 1966. He proceeded to become the lead photographer of Vogue and photographed most of the covers between 1973 and 1988.

Tamara Dobson was a fashion model for Vogue Magazine. She made a few films in Hollywood and is probably best known for her roles in Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975).

The photo above was first published in Vogue and republished by Life in October 1969 with the following caption:

Tamara Dobson, 21 and six feet tall, was signed by an agency her first day in New York and in two weeks had her first big job, a TV commercial. Six months later she returned to school in Baltimore, where her father works in the post office and her mother has a beauty shop. After graduating from the Maryland Art Institute, she was introduced to Richard Avedon who shot the Vogue photograph. Tamara doesn’t care much about clothes and strolls around in turtleneck and corduroys. She neither smokes nor drinks but ruefully admits that she is wild about food: that’s for somebody like a stevedore, not a model.

Toshiba ad for The Porta-Corder cassette tape recorder from 1969.

Look, no wings! But The Porta-Corder from Toshiba will fly with you wherever you want to go. It’s a go-anywhere, solid state, 2-track Cassette Tape Recorder for business and personal use.

Designed especially for portable people on the move, the Porta-Corder is great for dictating business correspondence and reports or for recording family fun and fine music.

And how about this?

The Porta-Corder features the exclusive and convenient “Pop-up, Pop-out” cassette action for fast cassette changes and a slip-in battery pack that simplifies battery change and prevents corrosion.

Esquire Magazine, Issue no. 402, May 1967. Classic cover by George Lois (American, born 1931).

With this cover George Lois was showing the moment in 1963 when an all-American kid started to grow up with live violence in his carpeted den, complete with an all-American hamburger and a Coke.

The issue contained an article titled: A Second Primer of Assassination Theories. It was a follow-up on an article published in December 1966.

At that point the Warren Commission’s crucial single-bullet theory was questioned. This theory claimed that President Kennedy and Governor Connally both were first hit by the same bullet. The Commission established that there was not enough time for the murder rifle to be fired twice within the interval that both men were first hit. Subsequently, a two-assassin theory emerged.

But that was not the only theory that emerged. A total of 25 different theories and thesis were reviewed by Esquire in this issue.

The famous Real Gusto campaign from early sixties by Schlitz beer, this one is from 1963, introducing the Pop Top opener.

Be glad you’re thirsty. Schlitz drinks down light and cool. Tastes great, even after your thirst is gone. The beer that made Milwaukee famous simply because it tastes so good. Now in the pop top – the can with the built-in opener.

Source: Gono.com

Swedish television (SVT) recently broadcasted a show (Tio i Topp – 50 year) in memory of the Swedish voting charts, Tio i Topp. The show is in Swedish and features a lot of popular artists from the sixties and rare footage. It is available for streaming until february 1, 2012 (click here).

Tio i topp was the first real music chart in Sweden, launched by Swedish Broadcasting (Sveriges Radio), on October 14, 1961.

You can find more facts about the Swedish voting charts here: Tio i Topp

July 1965. George admits that he and model Pattie Boyd have definite plans to marry. “But where and when is another question”, he said. “We are not in a mad rush to do anything”.

In December 1965, George proposed when they were driving through London. They married on 21 January 1966.

Source: Wikipedia and KRLA Beat, July 24 1865

The cover of the Swedish EP I Feel Fine released in 1964 by The Beatles.

I Feel Fine was the A-side of Beatles 8th British single. It reached the top of the British charts on December 12 of that year. When Beatles hit the number one i U.S. it was the first of six number one songs in a row, a record at the time. Tho song also hit number one in many other countries, like Sweden and Netherlands.

In the United States, the song was released on their Capitol album Beatles ‘65. In the U.K., the song was released on the LP format on A Collection of Beatles Oldies. A true stereo version can be found on the Past Masters Vol 1 and Beatles 1 CDs.

Sonny and Cher on the cover of KRLA Beat (May, 1966). KRLA Beat is generally considered Los Angeles’ first rock-and-roll newspaper.

Rival Top 40 station KFWB (“Channel Ninety-Eight”) also started up its own 4-page publication about the time the Beat debuted in late 1964. But according to ex-KFWB writer Sue Cameron the Beat led the field.

Cover source: francesco-totti.com

More about KRLA Beat.