By Hugh Schofield Paris

Johnny's music is unknown outside France, Quebec and Lebanon

The man born Jean-Philippe Smet is regarded with amused condescension by pop critics in London and New York, who view him as a posturing Gallic buffoon.

But in France Johnnymania is as strong as the day almost exactly 40 years ago when he wowed the crowds at an outdoor performance in the capital's Place de la Nation - creating what came to be known as the "ye-ye" generation.

Over the last weeks France's obsession with Johnny has once again been well served, with a reality television serial permitting a rare if carefully-controlled glimpse at his private life, albums of re-releases, and scores of fawning retrospectives in the glossy press.

Big heart

A 15-venue tour is underway, which includes a birthday concert before President Jacques Chirac at the Parc des Princes on Sunday and culminates at the Roman ruins in Baalbek, Lebanon on 3 August.

The many faces of Johnny Hallyday (pictures from www.johnny14.com) In pictures

Descending on stage from a fireman's ladder and dressed in a long "Matrix"-style black coat, the moody-eyed troubadour embarks on a medley of his greatest hits - including Quelque chose de Tennessee (Something from Tennessee), Que je t'aime (How I love you) and Allumer le feu (To light the fire).

For the singer's millions of fans - who come from all generations - his appeal is clear.

"Johnny has a big heart. He doesn't just do it for the money. When he is on stage he gives his love back to the public," said Dominique Lhomel, of the "Friends of Johnny" fan club in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The French have been entranced with the ups and downs of Johnny's career ever since his first single - T'aimer follement (To love you madly) - was played on the radio in 1960.

Whiff of rebellion

The key to Johnny is that he could never fulfil his destiny to become American Le Point

Tuxedo-wearing crooner, Elvis lookalike, James Dean-style social reject, Teddy Boy, tattoo-ed biker, sequined axe-man, serial lover: at different points of his long career Johnny has played every role in the rock canon - and with utter conviction.

"The key to Johnny is that he could never fulfil his destiny to become American," said Le Point magazine, and it is true he has tailored his life in a kind of perpetual tribute to his US heroes.

Born into a Belgian show-biz family in German-occuped Paris, he first appeared in a film with Simone Signoret at the age of 10, then in 1958, according to his website, "converted to rock 'n' roll".

In the conservative social world of 1960s France he offered a whiff of rebellion and he became the licensed purveyor for Gallic audiences of the unsettling American spirit of Presley, Dean and Brando.

All of which must make the mockery which greets him when he enters the English-speaking world pretty hard to take.

Screen acclaim

Though he portrays himself as part of an international rock elite - "there's only me and Jagger left," he lamented a few years ago - the sad truth is that his music is unknown outside France, Quebec and - evidently - some parts of Lebanon.

The English have always been sceptical towards our French rock - I have never been able to break across the borders Johnny Hallyday

Five years ago he appeared at a much-hyped series of concerts in Las Vegas - but most of the audience were card-carrying fan-club members air-freighted in from Paris.

But oddly it is in the last year that he has started to win some of the recognition abroad that he has so long craved - though it is not for music, but acting.

"The Man on the Train" - in which he plays a bank-robber who fantasises about exchanging his life with a school-master - was warmly welcomed by the critics both in the US and Britain.

"The English have always been sceptical towards our French rock. I have never been able to break across the borders," Johnny said in an interview this week.