Adriano Celentano

Born 6 January 1938, Adriano Celentano sensed shifts in music before the industry did and introduced rock and roll to a country that had never heard it quite that way. Album after album hit commercially and critically, often credited to him alone though his wife Claudia Mori later noted some were collaborations he didn't advertise. He stretched into film — 39 movies, mostly comedies — and became a showman, actor, filmmaker, and eventually a pillar of Italian music. The springy nickname stuck because the man never stood still, and the sales figures never stopped climbing.