"The King Is Dead" is a song written and originally recorded by Australian singer and songwriter

Tony Cole Anthony Stuart Cole (born 17 March 1947) is a retired senior Australian public servant. He served the Commonwealth in various capacities for over 25 years. Early life Cole was born in Macksville, New South Wales, on 17 March 1947. He attended ...

. Produced by David McKay, it was part of Tony Cole's debut album ''If The Music Stops'' (1972). That year the song was also released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

, with "Ruby" on the flip side.

Background and commercial performance

"The King Is Dead" was the second single released from Tony Cole's debut album ''If The Music Stops'' (1972). U.S.

Billboard magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

picked the single for its "Radio Action and Pick Singles" section. The review was: Nevertheless, the song didn't chart either on U.S. Billboard's charts, or on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Track listings

7" single 20th Century Records (1972, United States) :A. "The King Is Dead" (2:52) :B. "Ruby" (2:32) 7" single Jare International 410 067 EA (1977, France) :A. "The King Is Dead" :B. "Natural Dance"

Johnny Hallyday version (in French)

Several years later the song was adapted into French (under the title "Gabrielle") by

Long Chris Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

and

Patrick Larue Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick o ...

and recorded by

Johnny Hallyday Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and pop singer and actor, credited for having brought rock and roll to France. During a career spanning 57 ...

. His version was released as a single in 1976 and spent three consecutive weeks on the singles sales chart in France (from 16 September to 6 October).

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King Is Dead 1972 songs 1972 singles 1976 singles Songs written by Tony Cole (musician) 20th Century Fox Records singles Johnny Hallyday songs French songs Mercury Records singles Number-one singles in France