January 5, 1964: The Ed Sullivan Show airs on CBS. Sullivan, a Catholic who preferred soft songs to rock and roll, and loved acts from Europe, has what might be the closest thing he will ever have to a perfect guest for him. It is the singer with the Number 1 song in America: The Singing Nun.
Jeanne Paule Deckers was born on October 17, 1933 in Brussels, Belgium. She took the name Sister Luc-Gabrielle when she became a Dominican nun, and her singing was so well-received that her superiors encouraged her to record her songs. One was about the founder of their order, Saint Dominic. The record, credited to "Sœur Sourire" (Sister Smile) took off, and became the most popular in Europe.
Dominic de Guzmán, born in Spain in 1170, and died in 1221, was a priest, and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he and his order are traditionally credited with spreading and popularizing the rosary. The Dominican Republic and its capital city, Santo Domingo, are named for him.
Before Paul McCartney wrote "Michelle" for The Beatles, the chorus to "Dominique" became one of the few French passages that Americans knew:
- Domi-nique -nique -nique s'en allait tout simplement,
- Routier, pauvre et chantant.
- En tous chemins, en tous lieux,
- Il ne parle que du Bon Dieu,
- Il ne parle que du Bon Dieu.
Literal translation:
- Domi-nic -nic -nic went about simply,
- a poor singing traveller.
- On every road, in every place,
- he talks only of the Good Lord,
- he talks only of the Good Lord.
Noël Regney, who wrote the Christmas carol "Do You Hear What I Hear?" with his wife Gloria Shayne Baker, wrote English lyrics for "Dominique." Deckers recorded versions in Dutch, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese. The English lyrics he wrote for the chorus are close to the literal translation:
- Domi-nique -nique -nique, o'er the land he plods along,
- And sings a little song.
- Never asking for reward,
- He just talks about the Lord,
- He just talks about the Lord.
In the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, American radio stations were playing softer songs, and "Dominique" -- credited to "The Singing Nun" in the U.S. -- fit the bill. The fact that the late President was also Catholic may also have been a factor in the song's rise to Number 1 on our charts. On January 5, 1964, while the song was still Number 1 in America, she appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Three weeks later, The Beatles had the Number 1 song, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Two weeks after that, Ed had The Beatles on his show, and the world would never be the same.
Things went downhill for Sister Luc-Gabrielle after that. In 1966, Debbie Reynolds -- married twice, divorced once, mother of two, and a convert to Judaism -- played her in a film titled The Singing Nun, but Luc-Gabrielle publicly said that the film was fiction. She left the order shortly thereafter, later claiming she was chased out, and began using the name Jeanine Deckers. That same year, she said she agreed with John Lennon's statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. (A, At the time, it was true. B, Lennon never said that was a good thing.)
She wrote and recorded a song in favor of birth control: "Glory to God for the Golden Pill." It was not a hit. She made more recordings, but, for legal reasons, couldn't release them under the name "The Singing Nun." She released them as "Luc Dominique," but lamented, "Nobody knew who it was." The Belgian government claimed she owed back taxes from her royalties, which she hadn't been receiving anyway, as they went straight to the Church, and should have been tax-exempt.
She and autism activist Annie Pécher ran a special-needs school together in Wavre, Belgium. Responding to speculation about their relationship, Deckers publicly denied that they were lesbian lovers, but one of her biographers wasn't so sure.
Jeanne and Annie, date unknown
On March 29, 1985, both depressed over the downturns in their respective professional lives, they committed suicide, ages 51 and 41. They were buried together in Wavre.
"Dominique" remains the only song in French, and the only song by a performer from Belgium, to hit Number 1 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100.
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January 5, 1964 was a Sunday. This was also the day that the San Diego Chargers won the AFL Championship, which remains their only title in any league. I have a separate entry for that event.
The NFL Championship Game had been played a week earlier, on December 29, 1963. The Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants, 14-10. Baseball was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 142-118 at the Philadelphia Civic Center.
* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Baltimore Bullets, 111-106 at the Cincinnati Gardens.
* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-99 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 97-95 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
And the NHL's entire "Original Six" was in action:
* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 3-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.
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