Along with Gaber and Jannacci, he was discovered by Jolly Records A&R Executive Ezio Leoni, who signed him to his first recording contract and co-authored with Celentano some of his greatest early hits, including "24.000 baci", "Il tuo bacio è come un rock", and "Si è spento il Sole".

[citation needed] As a film director, Celentano frequently cast Ornella Muti, Eleonora Giorgi and his wife Claudia Mori.

Rosalinda is most notable to worldwide audiences for playing Satan in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Celentano has retained his popularity in Italy for over 50 years, selling millions of records and appearing in numerous TV shows and movies.

As part of his TV and movie work, he created a comic genre, with a characteristic walk and facial expressions.

Among his most popular songs there are "La coppia più bella del mondo", which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc;[9] "Azzurro" (1968), written by Paolo Conte, "Svalutation" (1976), and "Prisencolinensinainciusol" (1972), which was written to mimic the way English sounds to non-English speakers despite being almost entirely nonsense.