Rétro: Johnny Hallyday - Mon Fils

With Johnny Hallyday in hospital in the Carribean, I thought I'd give this week's retro spot to a great piece of film of Johnny in the 60s, at the peak of Johnnymania.

The video is from a performance at a UNICEF Gala in December 1968, the song Mon Fils is a melodramatic work, a perfect teenage opera.

You can hear echoes of Dylan, as well as chanson, but above all there's the sound of a singer pushing the limits of what a pop song could be.

Obviously very much of its era, of course, but it's the kind of work that for other artists would be a highlight of their career.

Interesting that much of Hallyday's work remains not so well known in the UK, where he's though of as either a recycler of American songs into French or as an ageing rocker.

Johnny is expected to resume his tour, which sees him play his first full concerts in the UK in October. Get well soon Johnny, and hopefully see you there.