1968, at the age of 16, Umberto Tozzi joined 'Off Sound', one of the many groups that performed in small venues around Turin. In Milan, he met Adriano Pappalardo, with whom he formed a 13-piece band and began a large-scale Italian tour. At only 22 (in 1974) Tozzi had his first success as a songwriter, with the song "Un corpo, un'anima" (lit. "One Body, One Soul"), co-written with Damiano Dattoli and performed by Wess and Dori Ghezzi. It appeared on Canzonissima, an Italian music programme running from 1956-1974. In 1976, he released his first album, Donna amante mia ("My loving woman"), from which came the single "Io camminerò" ("I Will Walk") which at the time had been sung with great success by Fausto Leali. In 1977 one of Tozzi's most famous songs was released- "Ti amo".It stayed at number one on the Italian charts for seven months, outselling every other record, and went on to become an international success throughout continental Europe. It also made some inroads in the Americas and Australia, primarily in discotheques. The single was awarded a gold record award in Australia, despite the fact that it only made number 25 on the charts there in late 1979 (source: Kent Music Report, 1980). By late 1980 he releases "Stella Stai" originally vocaled in Italian and a year later in 1981 Puerto Rican youth group Menudo release a Spanish vocaled version re-titled as "Claridad" (Clarity). The Spanish version was also composed by Tozzi himself only that Menudo's version topped elsewhere throughout Latin America. 1978 saw the release of Tu, another hit in Italy