Actually, Greenbaum is Jewish. He wrote the song as an imitation of Christian spirituals, I think just as a lark, and it turned out to be the only successful song he ever had.
(Some might take that as a sign)
I didn’t say that Greenbaum was a Christian, but the song was a part of the Jesus Freak period.
Jesus Freaks were a great thing of what emerged from the time.
Songfacts describes it this way: “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 we also learned about Norman: he used to run a goat farm.
The original inspiration for this was a song about a preacher by Country singer Porter Waggoner. Greenbaum was also influenced by folk revival music and traditional southern blues.”
You’d be hard pressed to find anything Godly in or about the pop music industry.
And just as expected, this hit sings the song of God’s enemy.
Its pop music.
I think its great that the message got out back in the day. No Christian music of any kind on the radio in that era; but this song was out there and talked about a friend in Jesus.
That’s ok in my book.
Absolutely true...he heard Dolly Parton and Porter Waggoner sing a gospel tune on Porter’s syndicated TV show and tried to see if he could write one. He did, and as you indicate, it was the only hit he ever had.