Hallyday's father, Léon Smet (1908–1989), was Belgian; his mother, Huguette Clerc (1920–2007), was French. Born in Paris, Hallyday took his stage name from his aunt Desta's husband and dance partner Lee Hallyday, a pseudonym for Lee Ketcham, an expatriate Oklahoman, performer, and MC at the Café de Paris where Johnny began his singing career. Johnny was raised by Desta and Lee from a very young age, with Lee being his first manager. Johnny was always very loyal to Lee and secured him a permanent job as a producer and A&R man with his label, Philips Records until Lee's retirement and relocation back to Oklahoma.
His debut single, "Laisse les filles" was released on the Vogue label 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, and was awarded a gold disc. It topped almost every European chart, although the track did not appear in the UK Singles Chart. He appeared on the American 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 under the management of the late Bruno Coquatrix. For their first concert, 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. There also is a widely published monochrome photograph of Hallyday walking somewhere in Paris in late May 1966 with Bob Dylan.
At 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 (a.k.a. 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 (Frampton's band) songs—tracks and they all play on the album. Often forgotten is Hallyday's non-LP single and EP track Que Je T'aime from the same sessions. By 1969 alone, his sales of records exceeded twelve million.
One of Hallyday's later concerts, 100% Johnny: Live à La Tour Eiffel in 2000, attracted an audience of 500,000 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 No. 1 in both France and French-speaking Belgium. In 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's lead singer Bono. His next album, Ça ne finira jamais, released in 2008, another No. 1 on the French album chart, and its lead single, "Ça n'finira jamais", also reached No. 1. In 2008 he recorded a series of acoustic songs with French musician Drexl Jonez. Hallyday's most recent album, also a No. 1 hit in France, is Tour 66: Stade de France 2009, a live set recorded at Stade de France during his farewell tour with appearances by Drexl Jonez on the guitar.
French movie producers Michèle and Laurent Pétin introduced Johnny Hallyday to Hong Kong film director Johnnie To. Hallyday was cast as the main role of To's Vengeance after meeting with the director in early 2008. The shooting began in November 2008 and concluded in February 2009.
He was married for 15 years to popular Bulgarian-French singer Sylvie Vartan and the two were considered a "golden couple" for 20 years.
Hallyday completed 181 tours, had 18 platinum albums, and sold more than 110 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists of all time.
Hallyday remains largely unknown outside the Francophone world, thus earning the nickname "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" in English-speaking countries.
On December 5th, 2017 Hallyday died, at age 74, in Marnes-la-Coquette, France.
La fin du voyage
Johnny Hallyday Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
On coupe le son et l'image
Comprenez
Sans amour pas drôle d'être beau
Alors vous allez me jugez
Me mettre en cendre et puis souffler
Comprenez
Tout était parfait
Toi tu as tout gâché
C'était si beau
C'était si bien
Dans mon coeur d'acier
J'ai mille ans d'amitié
Et des regards qui m'ont brûlé
Alors c'est bien la fin du jeu
Je voulais seulement finir très vieux
Comprenez
Près du femme que j'aurais aimé
Vivre un amour vivre une enfance
C'est tout ce que j'ai comme défense
Comprenez
Même un roi ne peut pas vivre sans ça
Tout était parfait
Toi tu as tout gâché
C'était si beau
C'était si bien
Dans mon coeur d'acier
J'ai des combats mêlés
Des cris de guerres, des villes brûlées
Des cimetières
Tout était parfait
Toi tu as tout gâché
C'était si beau
C'était si bien
Dans mon coeur d'acier
J'ai mille ans d'amour liés
À des visages, à des images
De corps pliés
Tuer mon coeur d'acier
Ne pourra rien changer
Car j'ai aimé comme tous les hommes
Et ça personne ne pourra me l'arracher
Dans mon coeur d'acier
J'ai mille ans d'amitié
Oui j'ai aimé comme tous les hommes
Et ça personne ne pourra me l'arracher
Dans mon coeur d'acier
J'ai mille ans d'amitié
Oui j'ai aimé comme tous les hommes
Et ça personne ne pourra me l'arracher
Dans mon coeur d'acier
J'ai mille ans d'amitié
Oui j'ai aimé comme tous les hommes
Et ça personne, non, ne pourra me l'arracher
Tout était parfait
Toi tu as tout gâché
C'était si beau
C'était si bien
The lyrics to Johnny Hallyday's song "La Fin Du Voyage" speak about the end of a journey, whether it be a physical one or an emotional one. The singer explains that without love, life is not worth living, even if one is beautiful. The ending of the journey is accompanied by the cutting of sound and image, signaling a finality to the emotional journey that the singer has gone through.
The pain of lost love is evident in the lyrics as the singer talks about how everything was perfect, but the love was destroyed. In his heart of steel (a metaphor for a strong and unbreakable heart) he has a thousand years of friendship and memories of looks that have burned him. Despite this, he wants to end things old, with the woman he loved, and the only defense he has is the memory of their love.
The final verse speaks about the struggles of life, the battles and wars that have been fought. Despite all of this, the singer's heart is filled with a thousand years of love and friendship, and nothing can take that away from him.
Overall, the song is a poignant representation of the emotions associated with the end of a journey, particularly one that involves lost love.
Line by Line Meaning
Alors c'est là fin du voyage
So this is the end of the journey
On coupe le son et l'image
The sound and image are now cut off
Comprenez
Understand
Sans amour pas drôle d'être beau
Without love, it's not fun to be beautiful
Alors vous allez me jugez
So you're going to judge me
Me mettre en cendre et puis souffler
To burn me to ashes and then blow them away
Comprenez
Understand
Sans amour rien ne sert à rien
Without love, nothing is worth anything
Tout était parfait
Everything was perfect
Toi tu as tout gâché
You ruined everything
C'était si beau
It was so beautiful
C'était si bien
It was so good
Dans mon coeur d'acier
In my heart of steel
J'ai mille ans d'amitié
I have a thousand years of friendship
Et des regards qui m'ont brûlé
And looks that have burned me
Alors c'est bien la fin du jeu
So this is really the end of the game
Je voulais seulement finir très vieux
I only wanted to grow very old
Près du femme que j'aurais aimé
Next to the woman I would have loved
Vivre un amour vivre une enfance
To live a love, to live a childhood
C'est tout ce que j'ai comme défense
It's all I have as defense
Même un roi ne peut pas vivre sans ça
Even a king can't live without it
Dans mon coeur d'acier
In my heart of steel
J'ai des combats mêlés
I have mixed battles
Des cris de guerres, des villes brûlées
Battle cries, burned cities
Des cimetières
Cemeteries
Dans mon coeur d'acier
In my heart of steel
J'ai mille ans d'amour liés
I have a thousand years of tied love
À des visages, à des images
To faces, to images
De corps pliés
Of bent bodies
Tuer mon coeur d'acier
To kill my heart of steel
Ne pourra rien changer
Won't change anything
Car j'ai aimé comme tous les hommes
Because I've loved like all men
Et ça personne ne pourra me l'arracher
And no one can take that away from me
Oui j'ai aimé comme tous les hommes
Yes, I've loved like all men
Et ça personne ne pourra me l'arracher
And no one can take that away from me
Tout était parfait
Everything was perfect
Toi tu as tout gâché
You ruined everything
C'était si beau
It was so beautiful
C'était si bien
It was so good
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JEAN GATSON RENARD, PIERRE JEAN MAURICE BILLON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind