Riccardo Fogli

Riccardo Fogli is an Italian singer and songwriter born on 21 October 1947 in Pontedera, in the Province of Pisa. Before establishing a solo career, he was a member of Gli Senders and subsequently Pooh, one of Italy's most commercially successful pop-rock groups. His time with Pooh gave him significant exposure within the Italian music industry before he departed to pursue work under his own name.

As a solo artist, Fogli became a prominent figure in Italian pop through the late 1970s and into the 1980s, recording for major labels and accumulating a catalogue of mainstream pop releases that performed well on the Italian charts. His personal life intersected with the Italian entertainment world through his marriage to singer Viola Valentino, from whom he later divorced.

For collectors associated with the Eastern European market, Fogli's records are of interest primarily because licensed pressings of Italian pop were circulated through state labels in several Eastern Bloc countries during the 1970s and 1980s, making regional variations of his releases collectable items. His Pooh-era output is also tracked by collectors of Italian beat and pop, with pressings from that period sought for their scarcity relative to his later solo material.