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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnny-hallyday-idole-des-jeunes_212.jpg]]
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3Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his [[StageNames stage name]] of "Johnny Hallyday" and often shortened to "Johnny", was a French singer and actor.
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5He was an icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career in TheSixties, considered by many to have been the closest to a French answer to Music/ElvisPresley. Johnny has completed 100 tours, had 18 platinum albums, and sold more than 110 million records. Although he announced his retirement from performing on 3 December 2007, saying that he would retire in 2009, he emerged from retirement in March 2012 to announce North American engagements Los Angeles on April 24 and in New York City on October 7, then gave further performances up until his year of death.
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7He was married for 15 years to popular Bulgarian-French singer Sylvie Vartan. They formed the "golden couple" of the sixties and seventies in Francophone Europe.
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9Influenced by Elvis Presley and the 1950s RockAndRoll revolution, Hallyday became famous in the 1960s for singing rock and roll in French. His debut single, ''Laisse les filles'' was released in March 1960. His first album, ''Hello Johnny'', was released in 1960. In 1961 his cover of ''Let's Twist Again'' sold over one million copies. It became his first gold disc. It topped almost every European chart with the notorious exception of the British.
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11He appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' with American singing star Connie Francis in a show that was taped at the Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris. He also staged many appearances in the Paris Olympia, which became his favored performing arena.
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13An interesting piece of trivia is that the Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for Johnny Hallyday in Évreux on 13 October 1966. Black and white footage, also from October 1966, exists of Hallyday partying with Hendrix, his manager Chas Chandler and others.
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15At the end of the 1960s, Hallyday made a string of albums with Mick Jones and Tommy Brown as musical directors, and Big Jim Sullivan, Bobby Graham and Jimmy Page as session musicians. These are ''Jeune Homme'', ''Rivière... Ouvre ton Lit'' (aka ''Je suis né dans la rue'') and ''Vie''. On ''Je suis né dans la rue'', Hallyday also hired both Peter Frampton and the Small Faces. Amongst their contributions are the songs ''Amen (Bang Bang)'', ''Reclamation (News Report)'' and ''Regarde Pour Moi (What You Will)'' which are variations of Small Faces and Humble Pie tracks. (Humble Pie being Frampton's band). Often forgotten is Hallyday's critically acclaimed non-LP single and EP track ''Que Je T'aime'' from the same sessions. By 1969 alone, his sales of records exceeded twelve million.
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17Hallyday arguably become a better and more rounded performer in his more mature years. One of his concerts, ''100% Johnny: Live à la Tour Eiffel'' in 2000, attracted an audience of 500,000 in Paris, and 9.5 million television viewers (the show was broadcast live on French TV). In December 2005, Hallyday had his third number-one single in France, ''Mon Plus Beau Noël'' (after ''Tous ensemble'' and ''Marie''), dedicated to his adopted daughter Jade. Shortly before announcing his retirement from touring, he released a blues-flavored album, ''Le Cœur d'un homme'', on 12 November 2007. The album hit #1 in both France and French-speaking Belgium.
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19In addition to the lead single ''Always'', ''Le Cœur d'un homme'' features ''T'aimer si mal'', a duet with bluesman Taj Mahal and ''I Am the Blues'', an English-language song written for Hallyday by U2 frontman Bono. His next album, ''Ça ne finira jamais, released in 2008, another #1 on the French album chart, and its lead single, "Ça n'finira jamai'', also reached #1. Hallyday's most recent album, also a #1 hit in France, is ''Tour 66: Stade de France 2009'', a live set recorded at Stade de France during his farewell tour. Hallyday remains largely unknown outside of France, thus earning the nickname "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" in English-speaking countries. He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1997.
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21French movie producers Michèle and Laurent Pétin introduced Johnny Hallyday to Hong Kong film director Johnny To. Hallyday was then cast as the main role of To's ''Vengeance'' after meeting with the director in early 2008. The shooting began in Hong Kong in November 2008 and concluded in February 2009.
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23In November 2005, Hallyday started a procedure to obtain Belgian citizenship, but his request was turned down in 2006 because he failed to fulfill the residence requirements. He maintained a second home in Los Angeles, where he has been spending increasing amounts of time in recent years, enjoying his relative anonymity in the U.S. One of his favorite leisure activities is riding his Harley-Davidson on long trips through the California desert, staying in small motels along the way. In July 2009, Hallyday was diagnosed with colon cancer, for which he was operated on. On 26 November 2009, Hallyday underwent surgery in Paris to repair a herniated disc. He suffered complications and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He recovered fully.
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25He passed away from lung cancer on December 6, 2017. The last of his concerts happened on July 5, 2017 during the tour of "Les Vieilles Canailles", a group of legends of 1960s French rock & roll with the addition of his friends Eddy Mitchell and Jacques Dutronc. They were gathered for the first time in 2014.
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27'''Discography''':
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29'''Albums'''
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31''Studio albums''
32* Hello Johnny (1960, Vogue)
33* Nous les Gars, Nous les Filles (1961, Vogue)
34* Tête à Tête avec Johnny (1961, Vogue)
35* Salut les Copains! (1961, Philips)
36* Johnny Hallyday sings America's Rockin' Hits (1962, Philips)
37* Les Bras en Croix (1963, Philips)
38* Les Rocks les Plus Terribles (1964, Philips)
39* Halleluyah (1965, Philips)
40* Johnny Chante Hallyday (1965, Philips)
41* La Génération Perdue (1966, Philips)
42* Johnny 67 (1967, Philips)
43* Jeune Homme (1968, Philips)
44* Rêve et Amour (1968, Philips)
45* Rivière... Ouvre ton Lit (aka ''Je suis né dans la rue'') (1969, Philips)
46* Vie (1970, Philips)
47* Flagrant Délit (1971, Philips)
48* Pleins Feux Sur... (1971, Philips)
49* Country-Folk-Rock (1972, Philips)
50* Insolitudes (1973, Philips)
51* Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime (1974, Philips)
52* Rock'n Slow (1974, Philips)
53* Rock à Memphis (1975, Philips)
54* La Terre Promise (1975, Philips)
55* Derrière l'Amour (1976, Philips)
56* Hamlet (1976, Philips)
57* C'est la Vie (1977, Philips)
58* Solitudes à Deux (1978, Philips)
59* Hollywood (1979, Philips)
60* À Partir de Maintenant... (1980, Philips)
61* En Pièces Détachées (1981, Philips)
62* Pas Facile (1981, Philips)
63* Quelque Part un Aigle (1982, Philips)
64* La Peur (1982, Philips)
65* Entre Violence et Violon (1983, Philips)
66* Hallyday 84: Nashville en Direct (1984, Philips)
67* En V.O. (1984, Philips)
68* Rock'n'Roll Attitude (1985, Philips)
69* Gang (1986, Philips)
70* Cadillac (1989, Philips)
71* Ça ne change pas un homme (1991, Philips)
72* Rough Town (1994, Philips)
73* Lorada (1995, Philips)
74* Ce que je sais (1998, Philips)
75* Sang pour sang (1999, Philips)
76* À la vie, à la mort ! (2002, Mercury)
77* Ma Vérité (2005, Mercury)
78* Le Cœur d'un homme (2007, Warner Music France)
79* Ça ne finira jamais (2008, Warner Music France)
80* Jamais seul (2011, Warner Music France)
81
82''Live albums''
83* Johnny et Ses Fans au Festival de Rock'n'Roll (1961, Vogue)
84* À l'Olympia (1962, Philips)
85* Olympia 64 (1964, Philips)
86* Olympia 67 (1967, Philips)
87* Au Palais des Sports (1967, Philips)
88* Que Je t'Aime (1969, Philips)
89* Live at the Palais des Sports (1971, Philips)
90* Palais des Sports (1976, Philips)
91* Pavillon de Paris (1979, Philips)
92* Live (1981, Universal Music)
93* Palais des Sports 1982 (1982, Universal Music)
94* Au Zénith (1984, Universal Music)
95* À Bercy (1987, Universal Music)
96* Dans la Chaleur de Bercy (1990, Universal Music)
97* Bercy 92 (1992, Universal Music)
98* Parc des Princes (1993, Universal Music)
99* À La Cigale (1994, Universal Music)
100* Lorada Tour (1995, Universal Music)
101* Destination Vegas (1996, Universal Music)
102* Johnny Allume le Feu: Stade de France 98 (1998, Universal Music)
103* 100% Johnny: Live à La Tour Eiffel (2000, Universal Music)
104* Olympia 2000 (2000, Universal Music)
105* Parc des Princes 2003 (2003, Universal Music)
106* Flashback Tour Live (2006, Warner Music)
107* La Cigale (2007, Warner Music)
108* Tour 66: Stade de France 2009 (2009, Warner Music)
109
110''Films'':
111* ''Cherchez l'idole'' (1963) as himself
112* ''Le Spécialiste'' (1969) as Hud / Brad
113* ''Film/LAventureCEstLAventure'' (1974) as himself
114* ''L'Animal'' (1974) as The Male Star
115* ''The Case of the Missing Bottle'' (1983) as Monsieur Waitor
116* ''Détective'' (1985) directed by Jean-Luc Godard
117* ''Terminus'' (1987) as Stump
118* ''The Iron Triangle'' (1989) as Jacques
119* ''Why Not Me?'' (1999) as José
120* ''Love Me'' (2000) as Lennox
121* ''L'homme du train'' (''The Man on the Train'' a.k.a. ''Man on the Train'' in the US) (2002) as Milan
122* ''Crime Spree'' (2003) as Marcel Burot
123* ''Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse'' (2004) as L'ermite borgne
124* ''Quartier V.I.P.'' (2005) as Alex
125* ''Jean-Philippe'' (2006) as Jean-Philippe
126* ''Vengeance'' (2009) as Francis Costello
127* ''The Pink Panther 2'' (2009) as Laurence Millikin
128* ''Film/RockNRoll'' (2017) as himself
129
130!!Tropes associated with Johnny Hallyday
131* BrokenRecord: "Je t'attends" penned by Jean Jacques Goldman:
132--> Je t'attends, je t'attends, je t'attends, je t'attends, \
133Je t'attends, je t'attends, je t'attends, je t'attends, \
134Tout le temps, tout le temps, tout le temps, chaque instant, \
135Je t'attends, je t'attends, je t'attends \
136Depuis si longtemps.
137
138--> (I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, all the time, all the time, all the time, each moment, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you, for such a long long time!)
139* HellBentForLeather: Hallyday always performs in leather jacket.
140* MistakenNationality: He is often named a Belgian, though he has always held the French nationality. His parents were Belgians.
141* ThePowerOfLove: ''Que je t' aime''.
142* OneWomanSong: ''Oh ma Jolie Sarah''.
143* PepTalkSong: ''Ma Gueule'' about a young man complaining how everyone looks at him and who wants to beat everyone up with the question: ''What's wrong with my face?''
144* ShoutOut: ''Oh ma Jolie Sarah'' uses the refrain ''tout passe, tout lasse et tout casse'', which refers to some poems by Guillaume Apollinaire.
145* VerbalTic: His ''Series/LesGuignolsDeLInfo'' puppet has cemented the idea that Hallyday used the words ''Ah que'' at the start of all his sentences. It certainly turns up in a lot of his songs.

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