Customer Reviews

Johnny Hallyday: Live at Montreux 1988

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The dvd is an excellent show of Johnny's talents as a showman and his ability to cross all ages with his upbeat rock'n'roll style. Must have item for music lovers.

When Elvis Presley created a stir in the late 1950s there were performers all over Europe who jumped on the bandwagon. In Britain there was Tommy Steele (who later went on to success on the musical stage in clean-cut pop musicals. In France it was Johnny Hallyday. Though popular there as "The French Elvis", he only charted one #1 hit in France in those early years (and only 3 in his career, the last being in 2005!). Virtually unknown outside of France, the peak of his career actually came in 2000 when he performed at the Eiffel Tower for half-a-million people with a French TV audience estimated at 9 million!

While used to performing in large venues, Hallyday appeared in a smaller concert venue in 1988 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. It was recorded and has now been released in the US on DVD. While the performances are powerful - a bit of Elvis, more of James Brown and some of Tom Jones in style - the show was presented for a French audience so the songs are all in French, (even Hallyday's take on "Old Time Rock and Roll") except for Jerry Lee's Lewis' hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On". The between song patter - which is brief - is totally in French. At the age of 45 when this 90-minute concert was filmed, Hallyday was in great physical shape. And he sure can sweat!

Since I don't speak French, I don't know what the songs meant, nor what Hallyday was saying about them. If you understand the language you'll probably get more enjoyment out of this show than I did. It's probably a big seller in France. As for the US, we'll just have to see.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"