Philips 203
Producer: None listed
Track listing: Dominique / Soeur Adele / Fleur de Cactus / Complaints Por Marie-Jacques / Je Voudrias / Tous Les Chemins / Plume de Rodis / Mets Ton Joli Jupon / Resurrection / Alleluia / J’ai Trouve Le Seineur / Entre Les Etoiles
December 7, 1963
10 weeks
The Singing Nun was one of the most unlikely pop stars ever to top the album chart. Jeanine Deckers, who was known as Sister Luc-Gabrielle at the Fichermont Monastery, frequently entertained her cohorts at the convent with her songs played on guitar. She called the instrument, which she purchased at a music shop in Brussels before joining the missionary of the Dominican order, Adele.
Her songs were such a hit with the young girls that visited Fichermont that they asked Sister Luc-Gabrielle, whose uplifting demeanor had earned her the nickname “Soeur Sourire” (Sister Smile), if she had a recording that they could acquire. No such recording was available, but Sister Luc-Gabrielle found the idea of recording intriguing.
Initially, Philips politely turned down Sister Luc-Gabrielle’s request to use its studios to make a non-commercial recording; it was just before the Christmas season and studios were too busy. However, Sister Luc-Gabrielle’s second request was granted. Once the executives at Philips heard Sister Luc-Gabielle, backed by a chorus of four other nuns and her guitar, Adele, they asked her if the recording could be released commercially. The album was initially released in Europe under the name Soeur Sourire.
It was that recording that came to the attention of Mercury Records, the Chicago-based label that oversaw Philips. Mercury A&R executive Lou Reizner was the man who suggested the company bring the music of Sister Luc-Gabrielle to America. “Lou was assigned to look through foreign releases, especially those coming out of our sister companies,” says Irwin H. Steinberg, who was executive vice president of Mercury Records at the time. “Actually, it wasn’t a big record in Belgium, but he listened to it and thought it was unique.”
It was Reizner who suggested that “Dominique,” a tribute to the founder of the Dominican order, should be released as a single. A disc jockey in Boston jumped on the song and its popularity soon spread. Mercury wanted to release the album in America, but was faced with one minor problem: The European version only had 10 tracks on it. The top brass felt that two additional songs were needed to complete the album for U.S. release. “We went back to Philips in Belgium and told them that we needed two more songs,” says Steinberg. The Singing Nun agreed to the request and recorded two addition tunes.
Once completed, the album was included in “Philips Connoisseur Collection” and packaged in an elaborate gatefold sleeve with a lyric book and a portfolio of watercolor sketches painted by Sister Luc-Gabrie Both the album and the single were surprise hits, as Sister Luc-Gabrielle, better known as the Singing Nun, became the first artist ever to top both charts simultaneously. With the album still at the of the charts, Sister Luc-Gabrielle appeared, from the convent, on The Ed Sullivan Show on January 5, 1964.
Yet Luc-Gabrielle’s success was short-lived. A follow-up album, Her Joy, Her Songs “failed miserably,” Steinberg says, stalling at number 90 in 1964. Two years later, Debbie Reynolds starred in a biopic about the Singing Nun, but it was too late to resuscitate Luc-Gabrielle’s recording career.
Luc-Gabrielle subsequently left the convent and became a missionary. On March 25, 1985, at the age of 52, she committed suicide, leaving a note complaining about tax problems.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 7, 1963
1. The Singing Nun, The Singing Nun
2. In the Wind, Peter, Paul & Mary
3. The Second Barbra Streisand Album, Barbra Streisand
4. Peter, Paul & Mary, Peter, Paul & Mary
5. Trini Lopez at PJ’s, Trini Lopez