"Dominique", the tragedy of "The Singing Nun"

[luisam]

The Singing Nun's Dominique was number 1 on 77 WABC, New York's weekly survey for 4 weeks and was Billboard's number 3 song of the year 1963.  Even today it sounds very catchy; then again, it must have sounded catchy to a lot of people in 1963 or it wouldn't have sold a million records.

 

Actually, there were other nuns singing backup on the record  but the one recognized as "The Singing Nun" was Jeanne Deckers,  a member of the Dominican Order in Belgium since 1959, known as Sister Luc-Gabrielle. While in the convent, Deckers wrote, sang and performed her own songs, which were so well received by her fellow nuns and visitors that her religious superiors encouraged her to record an album, which visitors and retreatants at the convent would be able to purchase.

 

In 1961, the album was recorded in Brussels at Philips and soon the single "Dominique" became an international hit; by 1962 her album sold nearly two million copies. The Dominican Sister became an international celebrity, with the stage name of Sœur Sourire ("Sister Smile"). She gave concerts and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on 5 January 1964. "Dominique" was the first, and remains the only, Belgian song to be a number one hit single in the United States.

 

The Singing Nun did not gain much from this international fame, and never again could score a hit. Most of her earnings were in fact taken away by Philips and her producer, while the rest automatically went to her religious congregation, which made at least $100,000 in royalties. She recorded two more albums which did not receive much attention and disappeared almost as soon as they were released.

Pulled between two worlds and increasingly in disagreement with the Catholic Church, she left the convent in 1966 and consequently her recording company required her to give up her initial professional names of "Sœur Sourire" and "The Singing Nun".

 

In the late 1970s, the Belgian government claimed that she owed $63,000 in back taxes. Deckers countered that the royalties from her recording were given to the convent and therefore she was not liable for payment of any personal income taxes. As her former congregation denied responsibility for the debt, claiming both that they no longer had any responsibility for her and that they did not have the funds, Deckers ran into heavy financial problems.

 

Due to financial difficulties and personal conflicts, she suicided together with her girlfriend Anne Pécher on 29 March 1985.

 

 

The Singing Nun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jabrwky]

This is horribly tragic, and so sad. Her success precipitated her demise.

  I have priceless memories of my dear Grandmother's love of this song. Perry Como was popular, and folk music was just catching on with Peter, Paul & Mary, Hootenanny, etc. I remember a song "Jimmy Brown" also loved by her. Many of our Grandparents' children and friends never returned home from WWII. "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" and after the War, "I'll Be Seeing You". We are forever changed by war.

[luisam]

2 hours ago, jabrwky said:

This is horribly tragic, and so sad. Her success precipitated her demise.

  I have priceless memories of my dear Grandmother's love of this song. Perry Como was popular, and folk music was just catching on with Peter, Paul & Mary, Hootenanny, etc. I remember a song "Jimmy Brown" also loved by her.

 

Probably you mean "The Three Bells"; it was also known as "Jimmy Brown" or "Little Jimmy Brown". I remember this song from the early '60s. It is a song made popular by The Browns in 1959. The single reached number one in the U.S. on Billboard's Hot C&W Sides chart and the Billboard Hot 100 chart, outperforming a competing version by Dick Flood. The version by The Browns also hit number ten on Billboard's Hot R&B Sides chart. It was based on the 1945 French language song "Les trois cloches" by Jean Villard Gilles and Marc Herrand. The English lyrics were written by Bert Reisfeld and first recorded by the Melody Maids in 1948. The song was a major 1952–53 hit by Édith Piaf and Les Compagnons de la chanson.

 

 

 

 

[funkyy]

I didn't know that this is what happened to this girl. I was about 8 years old when the movie "The Singing Nun" was released and the song was the hit of the day. Tragic that the music industry of the time had no mercy in their desire to squeeze and steal every penny out of another artist's work...of course the music industry of today wouldn't stoop so low(!!!!!!!!).

Why don't the greedy of the world realize that they can't take their riches with them when they die? Why not spread a little happiness with it before you go to the happy hunting ground?

[straycat19]

We had great songs in the 50s and 60s.  Songs you could listen to, clearly hear the words to, and dance to, especially the slow dances.  We sang Dominique in French Class when it was first released.  My French teacher, Mrs Sommers, thought it was a good way for us to learn.  The 'good old days' truly were the Good Old Days.  I still have my old 45s and my first Beetle album 'Meet the Beetles'.  I also have an album form 1966 that has never been opened, still encased in its original cellophane wrapper.  Most people never heard of the artist on this album though she recorded the hits Downtown, Lovers Concerto, These Boots are Made for Walking, A Hard Days Night, Moon River, and many others.  Downtown hit the charts at #83.  Not bad for a Classical/Gospel singer who was given some music and told to sing it by her producer.  I give you the one, and only, MRS Miller!

 

https://youtu.be/GbCOavjktgk

[luisam]

49 minutes ago, straycat19 said:

 Songs you could listen to, clearly hear the words to, and dance to, especially the slow dances.  We sang Dominique in French Class when it was first released.  My French teacher, Mrs Sommers, thought it was a good way for us to learn.

 

Funny.. You made me remember my English teacher who taught us vocabulary using some oldie lyrics, like George Gershwin's Summertime and Fred Astaire's Puttin' On the Ritz. He had an old gramaphone and played some old 78 rpm records. At that moment, in the late '50s I never would have imagined that this song might be a hit sometime in the far future, as it was later when bacame a synthpop hit with Taco in 1982.