Soeur Sourire - The Singing Nun
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Free Music Notes for The Singing Nun
Free Music Review: TRULY INSPIRATIONAL AND UPLIFTING
Hit: 5 Stars
I ENOYED HER MUSIC IN ENGLISH AS A BOY IN THE 60'S, AND AM NOW CAPTIVATED BY THIS NEW CD IN FRENCH. ANY CHANCE OF GETTING THE ENGLISH VERSION RELASED AGAIN?Free Music Review: This album is joyous and uplifting!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a great album, even if you don't speak French. If you do speak French, it's even better!Free Music Review: Delightful songs
Hit: 5 Stars
Even though I don't understand French, the songs are very pleasing to listen to for any ageFree Music Review: Great Product; Great Service
Hit: 5 Stars
The quality of the CD is excellent, and I received it in almost no time at all.Free Music Review: The #1 album in the United States at the end of 1963
Hit: 4 Stars
If you want to stump somebody with music trivia ask them who is the only Belgian born artist to hit #1 on the charts in the United States. The answer, of course, is the Singing Nun, "Soeur Sourire" ("Sister Smile"), who was born Jeanine Deckers in Belgium in 1933 and took the name Sister Luc-Gabrielle when she became a Dominican nun at the Fichermont Convent in Belgium. In the 1963 she became one of the unlikeliest pop stars in history when her song "Dominique" topped the charts. The singing nun was just trying to raise some money for her Dominican order and had paid a recording studio to record an album she could give out as a gift. But when "Dominique" became famous around the world her obscurity was at an end. Everybody liked the song even if they never bothered to find out what she was singing about. The chrous might surprise some people:Dominique, oh Dominique
Over the land he plods along
Never looking for reward
He just talks about the Lord, he just talks about the Lord, he just talks about the Lord
The song, which won the Grammy Award for Best Gospel or Other Religious Recording, Musical, was obviously a tribute to the founder of her Dominican order and was originally a present for her Mother Superior. This same Mother Superior had to be convinced to let a tape of the Singing Nun singing her hit song be aired on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The Mother Superior was upset that the song treated the order's founder with "familiarity and a touch of impertinence." Within a few years the Singing Nun had changed her name to Luc Dominique and was writing a song praising God for inspiring the invention of the birth control pill. Her life ended tragically after she left the order to run a school for autistic children. The Belgian government went after her for back taxes on her royalties, which, of course, had been donated to the convent, and she killed herself as part of a suicide pact.
Hard to believe any of that when you listen to these delightful songs, especially if you have ever seen the movie "The Singing Nun," which made a syrupy confection out of this woman's real life. Obviously the fact that she was a nun played into her success, otherwise "Dominique" would never have kept "Louie, Louie" out of the top spot (how is that for an irony contrast?). But at the end of 1963 in the wake of JFK's assassination, folk music was the dominant genre on the charts, where Peter, Paul & Mary's first two albums were in the Top 10 along with albums by Washington Square and Trini Lopez.
"The Singing Nun" has 12 folk songs, with the only accompaniment being the guitar and some sparse backing vocals. The only percussion are some handclaps during "Soeur Adele" ("Sister Adele"). There is a simple children's songs "Mets ton Joli Jupon" ("Put on Your Pretty Skirt"), but most of what is here is in a religious vein (e.g., "Resurrection," "I Have Found the Lord"). However, you would never know that from listening to these songs, which boil down to pleasant folk tunes sung in French. I mean, the "Lament for Marie-Jacques" ("Complainte de Marie-Jacques") does not SOUND like a "lament." "Dominique" is far and away the best song on the album, which overall qualifies as a pleasant listening experience.