Danyel Gérard

Danyel Gérard born Gérard Daniel Kherlakian 7 March 1939 is a French pop singer and composer Gérard was born in Paris France to an Armenian father and an Corsican mother but grew up mainly in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil In 1953 he returned to Paris and became a choir boy at Notre Dame Following this he played in the rock and roll band The Dangers In 1958 he made his first recordings Viens a cover of the Kalin Twins hit When and Doù revienstu Billy Boy adapted from Dorothy Collins Where Have You Been Billy Boy making one of the first young French singers to successfully sing rock and roll his only rivals at this stage were Richard Anthony Claude Piron later better known as Danny Boy and Gabriel Dalar although his commercial impact was very limited despite a latterday revisionist recasting of him as the French Elvis Presley he was nevertheless one of Frances first rock stars After cutting a further EP featuring a cover of Don Gibsons Oh Lonesome Me O pauvre moi which was buried by a rival version by Sacha Distel and an adaptation of the Fraternity Brothers Passion Flower Tout lamour he was drafted and spent from 1959 to 1961 he was a soldier in North Africa Subsequently he was a singer and guitarist in various bistros On his return he resumed his singing career with the minor 1961 hit Oh MarieLine but by then he had been overtaken by newer singers such as Johnny Hallyday He also began to write songs penning tunes for Johnny Hallyday Sylvie Vartan Dalida Richard Anthony Germanbased star Caterina Valente actress Marie Laforêt and Austrian singer Udo Jürgens After enjoying a major hit with the French version of Pat Boones Speedy Gonzales Le petit Gonzalès despite competition from a version by Dalida in 1963 he became to the first signing to the new Disc AZ label issuing two further EPs for them before unleashing his best recording of the period a revival of Chuck Berrys Memphis Tennessee Further hits followed but by the midsixties his star had waned and he moved into record production most notably for Michel Corringe He returned in 1970 with the French hit Même un clown but his international breakthrough came in 1971 with Butterfly which he recorded in several languages and which has sold seven million copies It charted across Europe reaching 1 in Germany Switzerland Sweden and France 5 in the Netherlands and 10 in the UK in the US it peaked at 78 It was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America It has since become a pop standard and was also used in the film The Mad Aunts Strike Out Source Article Danyel Gérard from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30