Enrico Riccardi

Enrico Riccardi (27 March 1934 – 17 March 2019) was an Italian composer, singer-songwriter and record producer.

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. He later was a member of Gianni Morandi's backing band. 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. 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". In the 1980s, he focused on television, composing background music and theme songs for series and variety shows.