{"id":20116,"date":"2014-03-12T04:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T03:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=20116"},"modified":"2014-03-04T21:11:51","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T20:11:51","slug":"johnny-hallyday-the-most-famous-singer-you-never-knew-existed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/johnny-hallyday-the-most-famous-singer-you-never-knew-existed\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Hallyday: The Most Famous Singer You Never Knew Existed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"le penitentier\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J4YVImCvH0E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><i>The French Elvis<\/i>, <i>the biggest rock star you\u2019ve never heard of<\/i>\u2014these are just some of the nicknames given to Jean-Philippe Smet, also known as <a href=\"http:\/\/johnnyhallyday.com\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Johnny Hallyday<\/i><\/a>, one of the best-selling French artists of all time.<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1943, <i>Johnny<\/i>\u2014as the French like to call him\u2014began <b>sa carri\u00e8re <\/b>(his career) in 1960 with the release of his debut album \u201cHello Johnny.\u201d Heavily influenced by American rock\u2019n\u2019roll, blues, R&amp;B and country artists, Johnny brought rock\u2019n\u2019roll to the French masses and garnered a huge following throughout France and French-speaking countries by singing mostly in French. Johnny\u2019s nearly fifty-five year career has made his name synonymous with <b>le rock\u2019n\u2019roll Fran\u00e7ais<\/b> (French rock\u2019n\u2019roll).<\/p>\n<p>Even at the age of seventy and after 181 <b>tourn\u00e9es<\/b> (tours), Johnny continues to release albums to great acclaim. With sales of over 100 million albums and eighteen certified platinum, Johnny\u2019s career continues to flourish despite recurring problems with his <b>sant\u00e9<\/b> (health) including colon cancer and several operations to repair herniated discs. Johnny stated during a 2011 interview <b>\u201cC\u2019est formidable d\u2019\u00eatre en vie, d\u2019\u00eatre en pleine forme\u201d <\/b>(It\u2019s great to be alive, to be in good shape).<\/p>\n<p>Johnny has always had a knack of putting French <b>paroles<\/b> (lyrics) to English or American <b>chansons<\/b> (songs) to reach French-speaking audiences. Below is one of his hits called \u201cLe P\u00e9nitencier\u201d (The Penitentiary) based on the <i>The Animals<\/i> song \u201cThe House of the Rising Sun\u201d released in 1964.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Les portes du p\u00e9nitencier<\/p>\n<p>Bient\u00f4t vont se fermer,<\/p>\n<p>Et c&#8217;est l\u00e0 que je finirai ma vie<\/p>\n<p>Comme d&#8217;autres gars l&#8217;ont finie<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>The penitentiary gates<br \/>\nAre going to close soon<br \/>\nAnd there I will end my life<br \/>\nLike other guys ended it<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pour moi, ma m\u00e8re a donn\u00e9<\/p>\n<p>Sa robe de mari\u00e9e<\/p>\n<p>Peux-tu jamais me pardonner?<\/p>\n<p>Je t&#8217;ai trop fait pleurer<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>For me, my mother gave<br \/>\nHer weding dress<br \/>\nCan you ever forgive me?<br \/>\nI made you cry too much<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Le soleil n&#8217;est pas fait pour nous<br \/>\nC&#8217;est la nuit qu&#8217;on peut tricher<br \/>\nToi qui ce soir a tout perdu<br \/>\nDemain tu peux gagner<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>The sun is not for us<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>It&#8217;s at night that we can cheat<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>You who lost everything tonight<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Tomorrow you can win<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00d4 m\u00e8res, \u00e9coutez-moi<\/p>\n<p>Ne laissez jamais vos gar\u00e7ons<\/p>\n<p>Seuls la nuit tra\u00eener dans les rues<\/p>\n<p>Ils iront tout droit en prison.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>O mothers, listen to me<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Never let your boys<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Hang around the streets alone at night<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>They would go straight to prison<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Toi, la fille qui m&#8217;a aim\u00e9<\/p>\n<p>Je t&#8217;ai trop fait pleurer<\/p>\n<p>Les larmes de honte que tu as vers\u00e9es<\/p>\n<p>Il faut les oublier<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>You, the girl who loved me<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>I made you cry too much<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The tears of shame that you shed<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>You must forget them<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Les portes du p\u00e9nitencier<\/p>\n<p>Bient\u00f4t vont se fermer<\/p>\n<p>Et c&#8217;est l\u00e0 que je finirai ma vie<\/p>\n<p>Comme d&#8217;autres gars l&#8217;ont finie<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>The penitentiary gates<br \/>\nAre going to close soon<br \/>\nAnd there I will end my life<br \/>\nLike other guys ended it<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The French Elvis, the biggest rock star you\u2019ve never heard of\u2014these are just some of the nicknames given to Jean-Philippe Smet, also known as Johnny Hallyday, one of the best-selling French artists of all time. Born in 1943, Johnny\u2014as the French like to call him\u2014began sa carri\u00e8re (his career) in 1960 with the release of&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/johnny-hallyday-the-most-famous-singer-you-never-knew-existed\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20116","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20117,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20116\/revisions\/20117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}