From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Jun 15, 2002  2:29 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Johnny Hallyday
 
JOHNNY HALLYDAY (By Alain Dormoy)

Born Jean-Philippe Smet, 15 June 1943, Paris, France

After discovering rock 'n' roll in 1957 through the film "Loving You", he
changed his name to Johnny in 1958.
He was signed to the Vogue label in early 1960 and his first EP was
released in March: "T'aimer follement", "J'étais Fou", "Oh Oh Baby",
"Laisse Les Filles" ("singles" were virtually unheard of in France at
that time).
The manager of the leading independent radio station Europe1, smashed
the record publicly and swore the station would never again play a
Johnny Hallyday record...On the other hand Ray Charles was quoted to
have said. "He is among the greatest, and I know what I'm talking
about".
Until the end of the '60s, Hallyday mostly recorded covers of American
artists with French lyrics: "Elle Est Terrible" ("Somethin' Else"),
"Hey Joe" among the most popular. He did a full album of duos in
Nashville with major American artists among which the likes of Tony Joe
White and Emmylou Harris. He also worked in London in 1969 with
some members of the Small Faces.

Johnny has become an institution in France, probably the equivalent of Cliff
Richard in the UK.. Jacques Chirac made him Chevalier de la Légion
d'Honneur.
He sold out the Stade de France several times in 1998 (I think it was
3 consecutive days), at about the same time the Rolling Stones had to
cancel one of their dates at the same place because of insufficient
demand.
The French scene was such in 1960 that it did not take enormous talent
to be signed by a record company, but only 3 or 4 of those who started
in those times are still around making records, and none of them are
nearly as popular as Hallyday is. He could hardly carry a tune when he
first started singing, but for my money (I saw him opening for someone
else in 1960) he was a true rock'n'roller from the beginning. He has
obviously taken a lot of voice lessons since then and he is now a
mainstream artist with an original repertoire. His shows still include
a good deal of rocking numbers and even at the age of nearly sixty,
he certainly can still hold his own performing that sort of stuff.