Enrico Riccardi
Italian composer and record producer (1934–2019)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Enrico Riccardi (27 March 1934 – 17 March 2019) was an Italian composer, singer-songwriter and record producer.
- Composer
- singer-songwriter
- record producer
Enrico Riccardi | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 27 March 1934 Tortona, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 17 March 2019 (aged 84) Aglientu, Sardinia, Italy |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1960s–1980s |
Life and career
Born in the Piedmontese city of Tortona in 1934, Riccardi started his career as a singer-songwriter in the early 1960s, using the stage name Rico Riccardi.[1] He later was a member of Gianni Morandi's backing band.[2] He had his breakout with "Zingara", a song he composed with Luigi Albertelli which won the nineteenth edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, with a double performance by Bobby Solo and Iva Zanicchi.[1][2][3] In 1970, he started a long collaboration with Drupi, for whom he penned the major hits "Vado via", "Piccola e fragile", "Sereno è..." and "Sambariò".[3] He also had a long professional association with Mina, for whom he wrote "Fiume azzurro", "Ma che bontà", "Uomo" and "Uappa", among others.[3] Artists with whom he collaborated as a songwriter also include Petula Clark, Patty Pravo, Caterina Valente, Loredana Berté, Caterina Caselli, Johnny Dorelli, Dik Dik, Marisa Sannia, and Donatello.[1][2][3]
In 1976, Riccardi co-founded the record label Real Music with Drupi and Albertelli.[1] His main successes as a producer were Milva's "La filanda" and Mal's "Parlami d'amore Mariù".[2][3] In 1980, he recorded his only album as a singer-songwriter, "Parapapà".[4] In the 1980s, he focused on television, composing background music and theme songs for series and variety shows.[1][3] He also composed incidental music for several stage plays by Giorgio Strehler.[3]
Riccardi died in Aglientu, in the Gallura region of Sardinia, in March 2019. He had permanently moved there three decades earlier.[1][5]
