(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer to the "Poor Little Fool" post)
The Singing Nun - "Dominique"
Hit Number 1: December 7, 1963
Stay at Number 1: 4 Weeks
I have covered a little bit of everything to this point in my blog, with some pretty questionable stuff hitting #1 in the past. But I can not for the life of me figure out how "Dominique" by the Singing Nun managed to hit #1 and stay there for FOUR weeks. I don't know if it had something to do with a coping mechanism for JFK's death, or if the public really were digging this French sung song by the Singing Nun. Considering it entered the Hot 100 before JFK died, that makes me think the latter, which is very head scratching. I mean, the song isn't even in English. There probably weren't a ton of Americans jamming out to this song in their cars when it came on the radio, and singing along to it. Well, you wouldn't think anyway.
The Singing Nun's real name was Jeannine Deckers, and "Dominique" refers to the Saint Dominic, a priest who founded the Dominican Order, which she was a member of. The song's refrain, and the part that is the most identifiable, translates to "Domi-nic -nic -nic went about simply, a poor singing traveler. On every road, in every place, he talks only of the Good Lord, he talks only of the Good Lord". Deckers has a version that was sung in English, but those lyrics were slightly altered from the literal English translation, and that version was NOT the one that hit #1 in America. Again, that was the French version, and the most internationally popular version.
I will give it this: "Dominique" is not one of the worst songs to ever hit #1, but it's getting there is still very confusing to me. The song is a sleepy, repetitive thing that I can't understand a damn word of. The only instruments on the song is Deckers' guitar, which she strums at the same quick pace for the entire duration of the song. That's literally it, there's no drums, bass, piano, xylophone, accordion, triangle, slide whistle, nothing. It isn't a "terrible" song, but it really lacks any excitement or any true meaning to it at all. But Americans loved it, clearly, and I can't understand why. I'll have a brain aneurysm trying to figure that one out.
Perhaps on a more unfortunate note, "Dominique' ended up being somewhat of a curse for Deckers. All of her earnings from the track were taken by her label, Philips, and her producer, and the rest went to her religious congregation. Even though she made nothing from the success of "Dominique" she still aspired to be a musician, and left her religious convent, which angered her superiors. After leaving the convent, she tried to still be as religious as possible, still considering herself a nun, and praying several times every day. Since she left the convent, her record company required that she give up her professional names, including "The Singing Nun".
Along with facing the difficulties of relaunching a music career with a new name, she grew frustrated with the Catholic Church for different issues, and wrote a song about that. Well of course, the Church figured out about that, so the Catholic hierarchy in Montreal intervened, and one of her concerts was subsequently cancelled. In fact, several of her other tour venues were cancelled, completely destroying her whole tour. She tried to spark a career in publishing, but that derailed as well. She was still determined to try and continue her musical career, and released an album consisting of her usual religious songs, as well as songs for children. Her career continued to stall, which she blamed on her forced name change. She would later comment "nobody knew who it was".
To make a long story short, life just continued to slap Deckers in the face, eventually leading her to some serious financial problems. Her last attempt to spark her music career again came in 1982, when she released a disco version of "Dominique". It went nowhere. Her and her lifelong friend Annie Pecher had started an autism center for children a few years back, but they had to close it down due to the financial problems. Deckers then turned to trying to give music and religion lessons for a living. Whether that just wasn't enough money for her to live on, or if that failed as well isn't entirely clear, but either way her and Pecher had had enough. They both committed suicide in 1985 by overdosing on barbiturates and alcohol. In a suicide note, they had claimed that they had not given up their faith, and wished to be buried together. All of this stemmed from what should have been a great moment of her life, when "Dominique" became a hit, eventually leading her to immense financial problems, no support from her old sisterhood, and finally, suicide.
Even though I'm not a fan of her song, it's still sad to see the way life treated Deckers after her song. Someone who had good intentions and sang about what they believed in, led them to wanting to kill themselves. A lot of people don't realize that the music business back then was very different from the way it is now. Sometimes, artists were treated like crap, and their producers hogged all of the royalties that came from hit singles. It was also much harder to have a successful musical career back then, than it is now basically for the same reasons. Deckers pretty much had the worst case scenario with all of it. So even though "Dominique" is a song that I skip on my playlist of #1 songs every time it comes on, it's still painful to see the kind of stuff she endured afterwards.
GRADE: 3/10
10 ALERT!!!:
In one of the most upsetting instances in chart history, the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" peaked at #2 behind "Dominique". It's a 10. Take a listen and try not to cringe when you realize that "Dominique" kept this out of the #1 spot.
Comments