Dominique

"Dominique" is a popular song in French by Sœur Sourire (Sister Smile, born Jeanine Deckers), of Belgium, also known as The Singing Nun. It is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born priest and founder of the Dominican Order, of which she was a member (as Sister Luc-Gabrielle). The English version of the song was written by Noël Regney. In addition to French and English, Deckers recorded versions in Dutch, German, Hebrew and Japanese.

"Dominique" reached the top ten in eleven countries in late 1963 and early 1964, topping the hit lists in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It reached the Top 5 in Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Australia and South Africa, with the song making it into the lower reaches of the Top 10 in the Netherlands, West Germany and the United Kingdom. The song reached and stayed at #1 on WLS for the last three weeks of November, then both the U.S. pop chart and "easy listening chart" (since renamed the Adult Contemporary chart) for the four weeks in December, of 1963. It was the second foreign language song to hit #1 on the Hot 100 in 1963, the other being "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto. For the next ten years or so, although there were a number of hits mostly in a foreign language (e.g., The Sandpipers' "Guantanamera", Rene & Rene's "Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero", etc.), no other purely foreign language song reached the Hot 100's top 40 until the Spanish language hit "Eres tú (Touch The Wind)", which entered the top 40 on 16 February 1974 and peaked at #9 on 23-30 March 1974.

Jeanine Deckers never again reached the same success and continued to lead a colourful, but tragic life. She and her long-time friend, Annie Pescher, both committed suicide in 1985, as a result of financial and tax problems stemming from the recording of the song.

"Dominique" outsold Elvis during its stay on the Hot 100 and was the second #1 hit in the post-Kennedy assassination era and the second to last #1 hit before the British Invasion.