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

Tom Waits
Tom Waits, c 1995. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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12/7/1963 (55 years ago today) - This one was unstoppable: The Singing Nun starts a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart with "Dominique", selling close to two million (in the U.S. alone!) and winning a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song. What could we do? Pick on a Nun? As Dr. Johnny would say, "We all in critical condition, babies..."

12/7/1974 (44 years ago today) - Carl Douglas literally kicks off two weeks in a row at No. 1 with the can't-go-anywhere-without-hearing-it classic single "Kung Fu Fighting". Facts: the song was intended to be the B-side; it took a grand total of 10 minutes to record; it went on to sell 10 million copies! Hai-Yah!!!

12/7/1949 - "Step Right Up" and say Happy Birthday to the supremely talented singer-songwriter-actor Tom Waits, 69 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 that you probably know him best for: he wrote "Ol' 55" (perfectly done by The Eagles), "Jersey Girl" by Bruce Springsteen (duh!) and "Downtown Train" by Rod Stewart (beautiful!). The list of artists who have covered Tom's stuff 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 "Dracula" film. Tom Waits, definitely one-of-a-kind.

Share your bug-eating stories with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"Outside another yellow moon/Has punched a hole in the nighttime...", xoxo!

 

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