Patrick Hernandez

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Born to Be Alive   DE 20th 07/16/1979 (8 weeks)   US 61 07/28/1979 (15 weeks)

Singles

Born to Be Alive   DE 1  gold 03/19/1979 (31 weeks)   AT 1 04/15/1979 (24 weeks)   CH 5 02/18/1979 (13 weeks)   UK 10  silver 06/16/1979 (14 weeks)   US 16  gold 06/23/1979 (19 weeks) Back to Boogie (with Herve Tholance)   DE 39 07/23/1979 (7 weeks)

Patrick Hernandez (born April 6, 1949 in Le Blanc-Mesnil ) is a French singer .

Career

Hernandez is the son of a Spanish father and an Italian mother. In 1963 he began a three-year training course in London , where he experienced Beatlemania . Inspired by this, he returned to France, joined a now six-member rock band and played with them in Parisian clubs until the mid-1970s.

In 1979 he had his greatest success with the song Born to Be Alive . The single topped several international charts , including five weeks (from May 12th to June 9th) in Germany, and was one of the most successful hits of the year. This fast-paced “disco stomp” track remained his only notable hit.

The following single Back to Boogie , which he sang together with Hervé Tholance, only achieved moderate placements. Further publications became commercial failures.

His debut album Born to Be Alive , released in the summer of 1979, was created the previous year in Waterloo, Belgium . It reached number 20 in Germany and number 61 in the USA . The record was particularly popular in Scandinavia , in Sweden it rose to number 1 in the charts, in Norway it was enough for number 9.

A remix of Born to Be Alive released in 1988 reached number 21 in the Netherlands . However , he did not make a major comeback .

Others

Patrick Hernandez always appears with a walking stick, which has become his trademark.

During a stay in New York in 1979, he and his producer Jean van Loo cast dancers for his world tour, including the then unknown twenty-year-old singer Madonna .

Today Patrick Hernandez lives in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue not far from Avignon in the Vaucluse department .

Discography

Albums

• 1979: Born to Be Alive
• 1980: Crazy Day's Mystery Nights
• 1981: Good Bye

Compilations

• 1992: Born to Be Alive
• 1995: The Best of Patrick Hernandez: Born to Be Alive
• 1999: Best Of

Singles

• 1978: I Give You Rendez-Vous
• 1979: Born to Be Alive
• 1979: Back to Boogie (Patrick Hernandez and Hervé Tholance)
• 1979: You Turn Me On (Hervé Tholance and Patrick Hernandez)
• 1979: Disco Queen
• 1980: Someone's Stepping on My Mushrooms (with Jorge Ben )
• 1980: Can't Keep It Up
• 1981: Good Bye
• 1981: Down on Easy Street
• 1981: I'm Loosing Sleep over You
• 1982: Y'a toujours des samdis soir
• 1982: Non Stop
• 1982: Fais moi calin
• 1983: Tallulah
• 1988: Born to Be Alive - Re-Mix '88
• 1988: Kalisha Kalima
• 1997: Get Ready
• 1998: Diva des nuits Disco (Nomy feat. Patrick Hernandez)

Movies

• Stars 80 (2012): in his own role.
• Stars 80, the sequel (2017): in his own role.

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Canada 1979: for the album Born to Be Alive

Platinum record  Canada 1979: for the single Born to Be Alive

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Germany (BVMI)	-	gold1	-	250,000	musikindustrie.de
Canada (MC)	-	gold1	platinum1	200,000	musiccanada.com
United States (RIAA)	-	gold1	-	1,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	silver1	-	-	250,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	silver1	3 × gold3	platinum1

swell

1. ↑ Chart discography albums
2. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
3. ↑ Chart discography Singles
4. ↑ Born to Be Alive (album)
5. ↑ Born to Be Alive - Re-Mix '88 in the NL Charts
6. ↑ Jean-Noel Mirande: Patrick Hernandez ou l'histoire d'un tube! In: Le Point of October 27, 2012

Web links

• Patrick Hernandez at Allmusic (English)
• Patrick Hernandez at Discogs (English)
• Biography at discomuseum.net
• Biography at Taurus Press
• Patrick Hernandez in the Internet Movie Database with Stars 80
• Stars 80, la suite at IMDb (French)