Sharing today's date at No. 1 are two of the shrillest, most infectious and somewhat annoying singles ever made, plus a wicked cool dude's birthday, so that evens it out a bit...

Tom Waits
Tom Waits, c 1995. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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12/7/1963 (54 years ago today) - This was one of those that you couldn't get out of your head no matter how hard you tried: The Singing Nun starts four weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart with "Dominique", selling close to two million in the U.S. alone(!) and winning a Grammy for Best Gospel Song. What could we do? Pick on a Nun? You're humming along with it right now, and it's not even playing!

12/7/1974 (43 years ago today) - Carl Douglas {literally}  kicks off two weeks in a row at No. 1 with the 'Yes-you're-really-hearing-this!' classic single "Kung Fu Fighting". Facts: the song was originally supposed to be the B-side; it actually only took a total of ten minutes studio time to record; it sold a whopping 10 million copies!  Hai-Yah!!!

12/7/1949 - "Step Right Up" and say Happy Birthday to the supremely talented singer-songwriter-actor Tom Waits, 68 years old today. While Waits' vocal style is probably his most distinctive trait -- "The Essential Record Guide" nailed it, saying Tom's singing voice "sounds like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, then taken outside and run over with a car" -- it's classic rock covers of some of his stuff that you likely know best: he wrote "Ol' 55" (perfectly done by The Eagles), "Jersey Girl" (Bruce Springsteen, but of course!) and "Downtown Train" (angelic and beautiful, thank you Rod Stewart). The list of artists' who have covered Tom's material is too lengthy to get into here, but it varies from Alison Krauss to The Kronos Quartet, so you get the idea. Also gotta say we absolutely loved him as the psychotic fly-eating Renfield in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 rendition of "Dracula". Tom Waits, kids, definitely one-of-a-kind...

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"Six in the morning/Gave me no warning...", xoxo!

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