French rock star and actor Johnny Hallyday, (REAL NAME Jean-Philippe Smet) became the first Gallic singer to popularize rock ’n’ roll in France and sold over 110 million records during a music career spanning over half a century, has died,
His wife, Laeticia, confirmed the death to Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
The 1957 Presley film “Loving You” changed French culture forever when it inspired the 14-year-old Jean-Philippe Smet to pick up a guitar, twist his lips into a sneer and swivel his hips. As Johnny Hallyday, he gave French audiences a bad case of rock fever, touching off riots wherever he appeared to sing hits like “Tutti Frutti,” “Blue Suede Shoes” and “C’est le Mashed Potatoes.” according to Agence France Presse. He was 74 and had been fighting cancer for several months.
I'm very sad to hear the news that Johnny Hallyday passed away. He was a giant in show business...a true icon! My thoughts go out to his family, his loved ones, and to the millions of fans who adored him for many decades.He will be sadly missed, but never forgotten.- Céline xx…
— Celine Dion (@celinedion) December 6, 2017
The singer, whose hits were little-known outside the French-speaking world, went from a quiff-haired young heart-throb who introduced US-style rock and roll to France in the 1960s to the ageing bad-boy “Patriarch of French pop”, a national monument, akin to music royalty, plastered over the cover of celebrity magazines.
Hallyday’s widow called French president Emmanuel Macron at around 2am on Wednesday to inform him of Hallyday’s death.
In a statement, Macron wrote: “We will never forget the name, face, the voice or above all the concerts of Johnny Hallyday”.
My heart is broken, like that of all of France - said ex-wife Sylvie Vartan - I have lost the love of my youth,
and nothing can ever replace it ».
Later, Macron tweeted: “We’ve all something of Johnny in us”, a musical reference to Hallyday’s 1985 hit: Quelque chose de Tennessee (Something of Tennessee).
Elvis changed everything. “His voice, the way he moved, everything was sexy,” Mr. Hallyday told USA Today in 2000. “The first time I saw him, I was paralyzed.”Unlike his friend, the singer Charles Aznavour, who successfully crossed over in the U.S., Hallyday could not replicate his success abroad. Americans first caught a glimpse of him on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1962; several concerts followed, including one in Las Vegas in 1996 in which he sung a rendition of “My Way” with Paul Anka, but he never built up much of a following.
