[1][4] The title song of the show, C'è da spostare una macchina (Gotta Move a Car), of which Salvi was author and singer, gained a great commercial success, topping the Italian hit parade.

[5][6] In 1989 he also made his directorial debut with the film Vogliamoci troppo bene[7][8] (Let's love too much) and took part in the Sanremo Music Festival with the song Esatto (Correct), which obtained critical and commercial success.

[1][12] The same year Salvi starred in another satirical musical show, inspired by Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers: I Tre Moschettieri, in which he played Athos.

[14] In the same year, he hosted the Italia 1 television show La strana coppia ("The Odd Couple"), together with fellow Italian comedian Massimo Boldi.

[26][27] Francesco Salvi is the most cited author in Gino Vignali and Michele Mozzati's comedy quotes anthology Anche le formiche nel loro piccolo si incazzano ("Ants also, for their humble part, lose patience").