CSPC: Johnny Hallyday Popularity Analysis
The French Elvis. That is how Johnny Hallyday has been described by media sources all over the World after his passing on December 5. This comparison falls short of highlighting how hugely popular the French singer has been in his native country as not even Elvis Presley‘s catalog isas rich as his.
The American legend passed away in 1977 after exploding in 1955. Johnny, as he is known in France, came to fame in 1960 and followed the footsteps of his idol during their years in common. He extensively milked American standards with translated covers of songs like Elvis‘ Love Me Tender and Heartbreak Hotel, the Animals‘ House of the Rising Sun, Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Fortunate Son, Little Richard‘s Tutti Frutti, Chuck Berry‘s Sweet Little Sixteen and Johnny B. Goode, Jimi Hendrix‘ Hey Joe, Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s Sweet Home Alabama, Ben E. King‘s Stand By Me and many more. In total, that’s 233 international hits that he covered, most of them from his debut to the mid-70s. As France always relied on local acts his versions were often far more successful than the original songs.
From 1976 he started to register massive hits from French lyricists and during the 80s the likes of Michel Berger and Jean-Jacques Goldman wrote him entire albums that were home to several songs that soon became stand-out classics. In 1999 and 2002, 4 decades into his career, he released two consecutive albums that still belong to the all-time Top 40 highest selling albums ever in France. Since then, his albums have gone Diamond more often than not. At the end of the day, in terms of popularity, his discography is closer in France to the ones of Elvis, Billy Joel and Eminem in the US put together , rather than the one of Elvis alone.
How does this unreal career translate into numbers when we consider that the French music industry has been historically about 8 times lower than the US one? His Sang Pour Sang is his biggest seller, but how do all his albums stand when factoring in singles as well as sales of compilations generated?
A lot as been said about his record sales since his passing. We will track sales of all his records to discover the truth is. In order to do it, post-mortem sales aren’t considered. This will also enable us to show the impact of his death with a future update.
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge his results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Johnny‘s albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
Let’s go!
I counted 10 million less. Are you counting EP’s as singles?
Hi MJD!
I’ve read that Mon pays c’est l’amour has already sold 890,000 (!!!) copies in France in the weeks since its release. Of course, given the circumstances and Johnny Hallyday’s stature that doesn’t actually feel too surprising, but comprehensively speaking, how do you see it performing in the long-run compared to the rest of his discography? Also, do you have a ballpark figure of how much his CSPC results may have increased in the year since his passing?
Hi Orange! Yes, it sold 888k pure units in its first two weeks. Not sure it will do that well in the long run (except in the run of Christmas of course), it’s sales aren’t reflective of an organic success. It’s mostly down to nostalgia effect added to the most insane promotion campaign that have ever been. Even main TV channels stopped their programs at midnight to stream live the album, to be honest it felt kind of nonsense. All jornalists and all were saying how utterly essential / great the album is even before listening parties had happen. I… Read more »
Thank you! I wasn’t aware of all the TV promotion, that does sound a bit ridiculous haha.
If he sold that much in 2 weeks, he must have totally crushed his own record of highest first-week sales in France, which is fantastic but it seems like it would be impossible for that to happen if he were still alive.
I’ve just gone through it, too quickly, but I’m going to look at it more carefully. That’s already the best level of Johnny sales research I’ve ever seen. This is a titanic job and must be difficult, as there is so much missing data. I am fairly familiar with Johnny’s career and have read quite a few books, some of which contain first-hand accounts. His artistic directors, record company heads. Everyone agrees that some times were more difficult. 66/67,74/75,81/84. Concerts were not always full and the hits were rarer. Outside, from what I’ve seen, it’s not always reflected in your… Read more »
France Gall has died. I believe she’s among those who had the most successful french songs abroad in the 60’s, isn’t she ?
Hi Rell! Yes, she definitely is. Maybe more impressively, Ella Elle L’A also did wonders all over continental Europe, as did Babacar. Obviously Poupée de Cire Poupée de Son was her biggest international hit during the 60s. It is reputed to have sold a million copies in Japan, and while this is most likely wrong (300k to 500k is a more realistic ballpark) it was definitely a smash there. It shipped 25,000 units upon release in the Netherlands and 10,000 units in Spain. It was a #1 hit in Norway and #2 in Germany. Except in continental Europe, she mostly… Read more »
Je vous suis très reconnaissant pour la qualité de votre travail. Fan de Johnny depuis toujours, je savais qu’il cumulait des chiffres de ventes impressionnants. Pouvoir précisément connaître les chiffres de tous ses opus est incroyable……… Grâce à vous, certains peuvent mesurer l’impact de cette immense star qui restera gravé à jamais dans notre cœur…..