# Besides Sœur Sourire (The Singing Nun), Has Any Cleric Or Member Of A Religious Order Had A Hit Song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595 "2017-03-07T02:30:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595/21 "2017-03-07T13:53:34Z")
John Cootes is a renaissance man. At different times in his career he has been: Australian international Rugby League representative player Catholic Priest Singer and guitarist Football commentator Owner of a chain of furniture stores. He released albums and singles as Father John Cootes, while still a priest, although he later left and married. According to [this site](http://rateyourmusic.com/list/jwjstone/4mb_chandlers_top_40 ___28_april_1972___ maryborough_qld_australia/), he got to No. 10 on the Maryborough Qld [think weirder, less sophisticated Twin Peaks] radio 4MB chart, so technically he had a hit song while a priest. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595/22 "2017-03-07T14:27:19Z")
“Going My Way” and “The Bells of St. Mary’s”, by Father O’Malley (aka Bing Crosby, singing the title tunes from the two hit films). Also “Swingin’ on a Star”, which won the Oscar for best song. Yes, I know, he wasn’t a REAL priest. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595/23 "2017-03-07T15:14:28Z")
Judas Priest had numerous albums over a fabulously successful 40-year career, including numerous [Gold and Platinum albums](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Priest_discography). Some may argue they don’t apply because apparently they’re not really priests, but c’mon, it’s right there in the band name! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595/24 "2017-03-08T00:19:18Z")
Soul singer Joe Tex became a Muslim preacher and left show biz for much of the 1970s. He later returned and had a hit with the silly non-religious song “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman).” I don’t know for sure if he had any official title or ordination within the black Muslim religion. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595/25 "2017-03-08T01:03:11Z")
[The Reverend Horton Heat.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reverend_Horton_Heat) [Father John Misty.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Tillman) But if you don’t want to count them, I understand. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595/26 "2017-03-08T02:20:33Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > The Montfort Mission aka The Mission, a folk singing group of Jesuits working in the inner city, put out several [major label albums in the 1960s](http://www.theancientstar-song.com/2010/05/montfort-mission/) and at least one minor hit out of them. The Montfort Mission are probably not Jesuits but members of another order of Catholic priests, the Montfort Missionaries. [AGEN96⚡: Agen Slot Online Terbaik Dengan Layanan Unggul](http://montfortusa.org/MontfortUSA/Welcome.html) One of the comments on the page linked says “Saw this fun group at Bay Shore Seminary in 1968.”; Bay Shore is a Montfort house in NY: [AGEN96⚡: Agen Slot Online Terbaik Dengan Layanan Unggul](http://www.montfortusa.org/MontfortUSA/Montfort_Spiritual_Center.html) As for Jesuit priests, how about the St. Louis Jesuits? According to this page: “The group received Grammy nominations in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1981.” Their album “Earthen Vessels” sold over a million albums: [St. Louis Jesuits - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Jesuits) ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595/27 "2017-03-08T02:37:32Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > As for Jesuit priests, how about the St. Louis Jesuits? According to this page: > “The group received Grammy nominations in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1981.” Forgot the link: [https://www.ocp.org/en-us/artists/61546#bio](https://www.ocp.org/en-us/artists/61546#bio) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/besides-soeur-sourire-the-singing-nun-has-any-cleric-or-member-of-a-religious-order-had-a-hit-song/781595.md?page=1)