[1] He then joined the Novelty, a Beat band formed by Franco Piacibello (saxophone), Delio Ombrella (drums), Silvio Pesce (bass) and Piero Braggi (guitar) in Alessandria[2] that had already released an EP in 1961.

He returned to the hit parade in 1976 with the single "Io camminerò" ("I will go"), which reached the top of charts,[8] and in 1980 with a performance of Totò's song "Malafemmena" ("Bad woman" in Napolitan).

In the late 1980s, he made several appearances at the Sanremo festival; in 1987, with "Io amo" ("I love"), that came in 4th;[9] in 1988, with "Mi manchi" ("I miss you") at 5th;[10] and in 1989, in the duet with Anna Oxa "Ti lascerò" ("I'll leave you") that won 1st place.

Leali returned to Sanremo in 2002, with "Ora che ho bisogno di te" ("Now that I need you"), a duet with Luisa Corna,[13] and the next year with "Eri tu" ("It was you"), which eventually went platinum.

[3] They had a daughter, Deborah, so named after the success of the eponymous song of that year's Festival di Sanremo, sung at the competition in a duet with Wilson Pickett (it came in fourth place).