More Than a One-Hit Nun

February 5, 2022 7:45 AM

Sister Janet Mead, who had a hit single with her rendition of the Lord's Prayer in 1974, has died (NYT). Born in Adelaide, Sister Janet joined the Sisters of Mercy when she was 17 and became a music teacher in local schools. She had already been staging rock Masses with the goal of reaching out to young people. She was making records for her school when she was discovered by a music producer in Sydney. The Lord's Prayer was originally the B side of the record she made, but Australian disc jockeys loved the Lord's Prayer, which became a hit in Australia and then the US. She was nominated for a Grammy for best inspirational performance, but lost out to Elvis.

Sister Janet refused offers to tour in the US and donated all of her profits from the record to charity. She described her period of fame as a "horrible time" and after the brouhaha went back to her work in social justice as well as teaching. She was the driving force behind developing the Adelaide Day Centre for Homeless Persons. She raised money for the striking Stevedores during the 1998 Patricks Dispute. Her work with people experiencing homelessness led her to be named South Australian of the Year in 2004. From the last article: "Mead was an ardent supporter of Aboriginal rights in Australia. She also was actively involved in anti-war protests and support for refugees."
Sister Janet was the second nun to have a hit single in the US. The first was Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers, the Singing Nun, who sang the 1963 song Dominque.

posted by FencingGal (19 comments total)

I just heard the song on SiriusXM's 70s channel. I never knew anything about the woman that sang it, and I'm glad to hear that she was an awesome human being.

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posted by LindsayIrene at 8:18 AM on February 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:38 AM on February 5, 2022

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posted by bryon at 8:49 AM on February 5, 2022

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posted by BlunderingArtist at 8:52 AM on February 5, 2022

A decent person and a one hit nun-der.

[And I just saw the title. Oops.]
posted by donpardo at 9:08 AM on February 5, 2022

Never heard of this (and I was still being forced to attend church services by my parents then) probably because, by its very nature, a song of the Lord's Prayer would get only minimal top-40 airplay, in the US. The real One-hit Nunder was the Singing Nun in 1963 (and that was in French!) Love all the minis in Sister Janet's video, however.
posted by Rash at 9:40 AM on February 5, 2022

So that's where it came from! We used to sing this (a less groovy version but recognizably this) at my Catholic school, and I've never run into the tune anywhere else.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:17 AM on February 5, 2022

Reminds me a lot of Jesus rockers Second Chapter of Acts, who took a very ecstatic approach to Christian music at least in the 70s. They did some interesting arrangements and harmonies and were also not afraid of guitars and drums.

I really like how Sister Janet ignored the temptations of fame and actually tried to make the world better, though. That must have been difficult.
posted by emjaybee at 10:55 AM on February 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I have to admit that I was briefly incredibly confused when you said she joined the Sisters of Mercy.
posted by webmutant at 11:58 AM on February 5, 2022 [14 favorites]

I have to admit that I was briefly incredibly confused when you said she joined the Sisters of Mercy.

I love that the Twitter account for the Sisters of Mercy says #NotTheBand.

by its very nature, a song of the Lord's Prayer would get only minimal top-40 airplay, in the US.

I heard this song a lot on the radio in 1974 in Springfield, Illinois, so that must have varied around the country. It was certified gold for sales of a million copies in the US, so it must have been getting a fair amount of airplay somewhere.
posted by FencingGal at 12:18 PM on February 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

It was definitely Top 40 material in Canada. It even got onto a K-Tel compilation.
posted by maudlin at 1:18 PM on February 5, 2022

The song was definitely in heavy rotation on some radio stations in Minnesota at the time. Radio was a lot more regionally varied back then.
posted by LindsayIrene at 1:51 PM on February 5, 2022

To put this particular song in context, in 1970, a spoken-word performance of the Desiderata reached #8 on the pop charts. The early-to-mid 70s music charts were full of oddities and novelties. There was a song about cannibalism in a coal mine, one about a man in love with his five-year-old niece, and one about a woman getting it on with the man that installed her telephone. The Lord's Prayer seemed pretty normal at the time.
posted by LindsayIrene at 2:08 PM on February 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

I love this video. I went to Catholic school in California about twenty years later and yet so much of it feels so familiar. Since my school had a big social justice focus, all the nuns were pretty rad.
posted by dame at 3:12 PM on February 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

This song is really, really catchy. She sounds like an amazing person, and it's nice to see that social justice nunnery was taking place in Australia as well.
Requiescat en pace.
posted by corb at 5:19 PM on February 5, 2022

I remember this song well, it got massive airplay in my region at the time (Western NY). There were a few occasions where people looked at me like I had two heads when described the song to them (and then would start singing it), so I guess it wasn't as popular everywhere in the states.
To this day I can sing the opening refrain note for note so I must've heard it so incessantly back then that it wriggled it's way into one of the deeper crevasses of my brain.
posted by newpotato at 1:08 AM on February 6, 2022

I was 4 years old in 1973 and as soon as I clicked the link I was like OH YEAHHHH THAT SONG! Really touches a nostalgic nerve even for an atheist.
posted by freecellwizard at 8:46 AM on February 6, 2022

I learned to play the guitar from a nun who taught out of a Catholic girls' high school with the best mid-century modern architecture and mosaics you ever saw.

She did not teach me this song. I don't think those sisters were quite this funky, alas, but this is awesome.

Thanks!
posted by allthinky at 5:59 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

I remember this. It was a big hit when I was 11 (also in Western NY) Quite the hip sounding tune at the time. The ability to dredge up semi-forgotten media like this is one of the great things about the internet.
posted by freakazoid at 8:26 AM on February 7, 2022