CSPC: Johnny Hallyday Popularity Analysis

Remaining Long Format #1 – Impact 1-Disc releases

When we think about compilations, we think about one main Greatest Hits plus a couple of best of releases. The strength of Johnny‘s catalog was so big and his releases so numerous that the approach taken by his major was deeply different.

Impact, a budget label, milked his discography by issuing 14 distinct compilations which covered his albums 3 to 33. It means roughly half of their tracks were included rather than only 1 hit at best. These albums must be regarded as some kind of reissue of the original albums to benefit from the newly increased album market of the 70s rather than standard greatest hits packages. What’s insane is the amount of units sold by those Impact releases, more than 5 million combined!

The formula was the same for all of them: one massive hit, giving its title to the best of, plus various minor hits and album cuts. This is why the main provider of appeal of them are almost always different records as they cover different smashes.