According to Philip Cooney: " Norman's songs often contain a series of self-contained vignettes that ( he hoped ) would give the passers-by something to think about, or that might hook them in to hear more of the gospel message.

He understood the ability of music to get behind people's gates, to draw them in with a beautiful melody and good words, to make people drop their defensive position to the gospel — even if for a short time — and allow God to speak to them in that moment .... Norman's songs sought to have a relevance to life on the street, establishing a rapport with the musical and social culture around him, and leading his listeners to look to Jesus for the answers in their search for meaning.

Norman's next musical was Love on Haight Street, also written in 1969, and another project that involved Norman was Bailey ; Some songs from these unreleased musicals appeared later on various albums.

Believing that " Kids just don't want to listen to God's empty songs anymore ", in December 1969 Capitol released Norman's first solo rock album, Upon This Rock, " the first major label record to marry rock music with the gospel ", " the Sergeant Pepper of Christianity ", widely regarded as " the album that first recruited rock in the service of salvation ", later cited as being " one of the roots of the current Contemporary Christian Music "; and now considered to be the first full-blown Christian rock album ".

By 1973 over 200 " covers " had been recorded of Norman's songs, including by Cliff Richard, Jack Jones, Petula Clark, Sammy Davis, Jr., Pat Boone, The Imperials, and The Oak Ridge Boys.

", a songbook featuring some of Norman's songs from both Upon This Rock and Only Visiting This Planet.

However, Word rejected Norman's wishes as they believed two separate albums would be more profitable, censored some of the songs, and delayed the album's release until 1981.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of I Love You, in 1978 Street Level Records advertised the release at Christmas of The Compleat Trilogy, containing all forty songs intended for Norman's Trilogy, making it the " unedited, uncensored, unexpurgated, complete " version.

American Christian rock historian John J. Thompson identifies several factors in the collapse of Solid Rock, including possibly an over reliance on Norman's celebrity ; Norman's confrontational lyrics and music, which alienated both the Christian and mainstream music industries ; Norman's over-commitment, including producing almost all of the Solid Rock albums, contributing songs, and singing backing vocals ; and " by releasing high-quality music by the best bands, Norman doomed his label to almost certain failure.

In 1998 Norman performed at Flevo backed by Beam, a young Dutch band, to a mixed reception as Norman's label wanted a new set of songs to be released on another live album, Shouting In The Storm, which sold poorly in Europe, and led to GMI dropping Norman from the label.

In August 1995 ForeFront Records released One Way: Songs of Larry Norman, a tribute album that included covers of 14 Norman's classic songs by ForeFront artists, including dc Talk ; Audio Adrenaline, Grammatrain ; and Rebecca St. James, whose father, David Smallbone, booked and promoted Norman's first concerts and distributed Norman's early records in Australia, including his eponymous 1977 album, ( which is also known as Starstorm ).

The Gospel Music Association said: Larry Norman's music – an unlikely mix of love songs, the Gospel message, and wry commentary on American culture – exemplified the goals, ideals, and standards of everything the original architects of contemporary Christian music intended for it to be.

In order to meet Norman's hospital bills, in November 2002 Solid Rock Records began releasing the Essential Series on CD-R, a set of seven Norman albums, with 142 songs ( including 16 previously unreleased songs ), which comprised: Instigator, which included rough mix versions of two previously unreleased songs, " Butterfly " and " Kulderachna ", both removed from 1973's So Long Ago the Garden ; Agitator, which included three unreleased bonus tracks, " Sweet Silver Angels ", " God, Part 2 ", and " People In My Past "; Liberator, which included songs that were aimed at " liberating Christians who felt trapped inside the church and also providing a cultural doorway to allow those who felt dismissed and isolated by Christianity to find their way into fellowship with Christ regardless of the church's response toward them "; Collaborator, which featured songs representing " the combined efforts of Charles and Larry from lyrics and melodies to arrangements and production ", including three unreleased songs: " Perfect World ", " Don't Wanna Be Like You ", and " Jesus Is God ", recorded about 2000 ; Emancipator, included two unreleased songs of Norman singing with Randy Stonehill: a Christian version of the folk song " He Was a Friend of Mine ", which had been popularized by The Byrds and Bob Dylan, which was re-titled " He is a Friend of Mine ", and " I Love You ", the song Stonehill and Norman co-wrote in 1971 for Stonehill's Born Twice album ; Infiltrator, which sees love as " the most powerful infiltrator in the world ", is a collection of Norman's love songs, and includes two new releases: a cover of David Noble's " Waves of Grace ", and " Stranger, Won't You Change "; and Survivor, included the full 8-minute version of " Dark Passage ", an unreleased third verse of " Baby Out of Wedlock ", and " One Star Remains ", which is Judee Sill's " My Man On Love " from her 1971 eponymous debut album.

The 2004 Sessions album, which had six previously unreleased Norman songs ( including covers of an old hymn, a traditional folk song, and songs by Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris ) that were backed by Mark Lemhouse and Charles Norman's Softcore, as well as rare songs by Jesus Music veterans Dave Mattson, Randy Stonehill, Tom Howard, Keith Green, Steve ' N ' Stonebrooke, and Daniel Amos, was sent to those who contributed $ 100 or more to his medical fund.

In a 2008 interview in Christianity Today, Entertainment Tonight writer Chris Willman asserts that Norman's " influence outweighed his sales so much that it's comical .... He really could've been a star if he were singing about something other than Jesus.

Shows like Norman's were a cause for public concern, both on the grounds of decency and due to the disruption caused by crowds gathering outside them.

The Telnarian Histories were critically and popularly regarded as an unfortunate deviation from Norman's Gor series, perhaps due to a combination of his unconvincing attempts to be a futurist ( directly introducing a large number of Imperial Roman social customs and names of early Germanic tribes into his account of a declining galactic empire, for example ) and his departing from many of the conventions of his already established Gor legacy.

However, orders were still not forthcoming and following failure to win a military order for the ' Firecracker ' design, Norman's company was wrapped up.

At Miss Norman's recital ... tones were produced, colors manipulated, words projected and interpretive points made — all with fanatic finesse.

Norman's exploits through the ages were the basis of numerous legends, including Thor, Hercules, Samson, Lancelot, and Little John, presumably among others.

He probably drew specifically on the destruction of the Wiscasset, Maine ship Favorite on the reef of Norman's Woe ( located off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts ); all hands were lost, one of whom was a woman, who reportedly floated to shore dead but still tied to the mast.

Norman has received royalties since 1962 for the theme, but it was arranged by John Barry after the producers were dissatisfied with Norman's arrangement.

Genuine musical performances by guest stars were countered by Norman's own unique interpretations of popular songs – he specialised in portraying his lyrics through mime and sign language and frequently punctuated the song with ' dramatic ' interjections.

McDonald is in real life an accomplished blues harmonica player ( he jammed with Frank Zappa in an interview recording during Zappa's second Australian tour ) and many of Norman's musical performances were regularly punctuated by poorly executed and inappropriate harmonica playing, such as in his rendition of the Billy Joel signature tune " Piano Man ".

Stage settings were defiantly downmarket and rooted in Australian suburbia and kitsch RSL club stylings — after being introduced, bemused guests were offered their choice of dubious delicacies ( such as pineapple doughnuts or the infamous Chiko Roll ) from Norman's hot food bar, before being invited to sit on his vinyl-clad " night-and-day " ( a venerable Australian term for sofa bed ).

Psycho II introduced the character of Norman's aunt Emma Spool, and in that film both the audience of Psycho II and Norman Bates were led to believe she was Norman's real mother.

Before this time, from 1954 – 1974 meetings were held in Ruth Norman's home or at public meeting facilities.

Since Norman's first professional release in 1967 as a lead singer of the one-hit wonder band People !, more than 100 of his own albums have been released through such commercial record labels as Capitol, MGM, Verve, and his own independent labels: One Way Records, Solid Rock Records, Street Level Records, and Phydeaux Records.

and Larry Norman's Solid Rock Records, home to such artists as Randy Stonehill, Tom Howard, Mark Heard, and others, leased the recordings from Word.

The poem ends with a prayer that all be spared such a fate " on the reef of Norman's Woe.

* " Norman's Dreamtime " – a mock-fairytale segment in which Gunston regaled a group of increasingly bored children with readings from a book of iconic Australian fables, with titles such as " Why Underpants Ride Up "

The series, which satirised many aspects of Australian culture and show business, was a mixture of live and pre-recorded interviews, awkward musical segments – excruciatingly sung by Gunston himself in the broadest ' strine ' accent – and continuing comedy sketches such as " Norman's Dreamtime " ( in which Norman read stories to a group of children, such as " Why Underpants Ride Up ").

The town of Fairvale ( seen when Lila Loomis is tailed by Dr. Raymond ) is actually Courthouse Square, which is located on the Universal Studios backlot in California. Both Franklin and Holland wanted the film to be a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock and the original film, to accomplish this, they added in various in jokes such as the scene when Mary and Norman first go into Norman's mother's room, before they turn the lights on, you can see Alfred Hitchcock's silhouette on the wall to the far right.

At the Theater de Lys, Ms Lortel provided a home for such plays as David Mamet's A Life in the Theater, Sam Shepard's Buried Child and and Marsha Norman's award winning Getting Out.

He is nicknamed The Great White Shark or sometimes simply The Shark – a reference to Norman's blond hair, size, aggressive golf style and the shark inhabited Australian waters.

Medallist was formed in 1997 as a joint venture between Greg Norman's Great White Shark Enterprises and Macquarie Group Limited.

On Saturday, September 2, 1972 Norman also performed at the Festival of Light-sponsored Festival for Jesus held in Hyde Park, London, which was filmed and released as a 50-minute documentary Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music ?, which featured Norman's 1972 song of the same name, which was written in response to the criticisms of Christian Rock music by American evangelist Bob Larson, whom Norman regularly lampooned at his concerts.

One of Norman's musical influences was fellow American singer songwriter Bob Dylan, whom he knew personally but not well.

Others who acknowledge Norman's influence on their career or music include American drummer Hilly Michaels, who recorded with Norman and Randy Stonehill in 1970 ; Grammy Award-winning recording artist and rapper TobyMac, who described Norman as " socially relevant, spiritually significant and passionate about challenging his generation to new heights of love ", considered Norman his " greatest lyrical influence "; Mark Salomon, the lead singer of Christian metal band Stavesacre and thrash metal band The Crucified, who reveals that it was Norman's concert performance that connected him to Christian music ; and Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph.

Other of Norman's diverse projects have included her 1984 album, With a Song in My Heart, which contains numbers from films and musical comedies, and a 1990 performance of American spirituals with soprano Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall.

Following the Jealousy EP in 1988, singer Niihara was fired from the band, after producer Max Norman's suggestion that an English speaking vocalist could help the band break through in the American market.

This comic device led to his memorable exchange with visiting American actress Sally Struthers – noting Norman's apparent shaving cuts, she kindly suggested that perhaps Gunston should use an electric razor ; the nonplussed Norman replied " Uh, I do ", at which point Struthers collapsed in a fit of laughter.

Norman's grandfather, John George Kittson ( d. 1779 ), was a junior officer in the British Army ( his officer's sword still exists ) who was said to have seen considerable action during the American Revolution.