"The Lord's Prayer" is a

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, ear ...

setting of the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

with music by Arnold Strals recorded in 1973 by the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n nun Sister

Janet Mead Janet Mead (15 August 1937 – 26 January 2022) was an Australian Catholic nun who was best known for recording a pop-rock version of the Lord's Prayer. The surprise hit reached Number 3 on the Australian singles chart (Kent Music Report) in 1 ...

. Mead was known for pioneering the use of contemporary rock music in celebrating the

Roman Catholic Mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass, "the same Chri ...

and for her weekly radio programs. The recording was produced by Martin Erdman and originally released by Festival Records in Australia. After reaching number three on the charts in Australia, it went on to become an international hit, selling nearly three million copies worldwide and making the upper reaches of the pop charts in countries as diverse as

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Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. In the United States, "The Lord's Prayer" was picked up for American distribution by

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

(catalogue number 1491, b/w "Brother Sun and Sister Moon"). It was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

for sales of one million copies. The single entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on 23 February 1974, charted for 13 weeks and reached a peak of No. 4 during

Holy Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...

in April. The record also reached No. 2 on the

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

singles chart. It made Mead the first Roman Catholic nun to have a hit record in the United States since Jeanine Deckers (" The Singing Nun"), hit No. 1 with " Dominique" in late 1963. It also became the only song to hit the Top 10 in which the entire lyrical content originated from the words of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

. More specifically, it is the only Top 10 hit with words attributed to

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

Accolades

Mead was nominated for a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for Best Inspirational Performance (although she lost to

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

's '' How Great Thou Art'') and also became the first Australian artist to sell one million US copies of a record produced in Australia. She donated all of her royalties from the recording's international sales to charity and her record label used their share of the proceeds to build a new state of the art recording studio. Mead re-recorded "The Lord's Prayer" in 1999 for her album ''A Time to Sing''.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales certification

Cover versions

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

covered "The Lord's Prayer" in the style of Sister Janet Mead in 1980. His version was a non-album track and was used as the B-side of his re-recording that year of " When a Child Is Born."

Popular culture

*Mead's version was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of copy ...

in the

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

stage musical ''

Disaster! Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You! was a dark ride attraction at Universal Studios Florida. Set on a soundstage of a fictitious movie company, ''Disaster!'' was based on the park's former Earthquake: The Big One ride, which ...

''.

References

External link

* Q Stereo 973 1973 singles Contemporary Christian songs A&M Records singles 1973 songs Festival Records singles {{Christian-song-stub