Singing nun had pop-rock hit

Version of Lord's Prayer topped charts

Sister Janet Mead, a Catholic nun who devoted her life to the homeless, the Aborigines and other disadvantaged people in her native Australia and became a global sensation as a chart-topping pop star in 1974 with a rocked-up version of the Lord's Prayer died Jan 26 in Adelaide. She was reported to be 83 or 84.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide confirmed the death without giving a cause, but friends said she had been suffering from cancer.

The Lord's Prayer single sold more than two million copies worldwide. The single shot up the charts in more than 30 countries and reached No. 4 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at Easter 1974. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for best inspirational performance (non-classical), but lost out to Elvis Presley in 1975 for his rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”

Long before her record brought her wider recognition, Mead was well-known in Australia for her regular “Rock Mass” at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Adelaide. She encouraged young Catholics to play guitar or drums and sing like Presley or Bill Haley. Record producer Martin Erdman saw her musical potential and came up with a modern arrangement for the Lord's Prayer.

It was actually meant to be the B-side to her version of Scottish musician Donovan's track “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” but radio stations began playing the Lord's Prayer. Mead declined to cash in with tours. She mostly avoided media interviews and donated all the royalties from her hit record to charities and continued to teach at a Catholic school in Adelaide.

“It was unexpected, and I was unprepared,” she told the Daily Telegraph, a Sydney publication, in 1999. “It was a complete shock when publicity ... came my way. Because I'd resolved to use all my powers to continue with the work I was doing rather than be sidetracked by the superficial kind of success that I was experiencing, it was very, very difficult.

Mead was born in Adelaide in 1938. At 17, she entered a Sisters of Mercy convent.

The success of the Lord's Prayer single led to the album titled With You I Am, followed by two more titled A Rock Mass and A Time to Sing.