#14: Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez

Peak Month: August 1979
12 weeks on CKLG’s Vancouver Chart
Peak Position ~ #1
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
Billboard Year-End 1979 Top 100 ~ #70
YouTube: “Born To Be Alive”
Lyrics: “Born To Be Alive”

Patrick Pierre Hernandez was born in the northern Paris suburb of Le Blanc-Mesnil, within Seine-Saint-Denis in 1949. By the 1960s Patrick Hernandez had developed a keen interest in music. By the 70s he was touring with some French In the early ’70s Patrick Hernandez became a session musician. He joined the pop-rock band Paris Palace Hôtel. Later in the mid-70s Hernandez met arranger, guitarist and vocalist Hervé Tholance and the pair began to collaborate. They backed/supported the careers of French folk-country guitarist/singer Francis Cabrel who released his first studio album in 1977; And Parisian pop-rock singer Laurent Voulzy who released his first album in 1979. The pair later helped launch the Toulouse-based French group Gold, who went on to have five hit singles land in the Top Ten France’s pop charts between 1984 and 1987. Meanwhile, Hernandez released his first single in 1978 in France titled “I Give You Rendez-Vous”.
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