Evaluating the bonding strength at the interface between two layers is an issue of considerable practical interest for a wide variety of engineering applications involving coatings, such as thermal protective ceramics coated on engine blades. Spallation under laser driven shock loading is one of the experimental means to test interface debonding. However, numerical simulations are usually needed to infer a quantitative value of the bonding strength from such tests, where the coating free surface velocity is usually the only measurable variable. In this paper, the analysis of the propagation and interactions of compression and release waves leading to spall fracture in a shock-loaded material is detailed, then it is extended to a substrate-coating system. Different cases are considered, depending on the acoustic impedances of the substrate and coating materials and on the duration of the loading pressure pulse with respect to the wave transit time through the coating thickness. In each case, the interfacial strength can be analytically estimated from the velocity variations without resorting to numerical models.