They came together in the mid-1960s while playing together as backup musicians for many different Italian pop, rock and folk singers such as Lucio Battisti, Mina, Adriano Celentano and Fabrizio De André.

They appeared on many recordings for other artists during this period and quickly established themselves as top players on the Italian scene before forming the group 'I quelli' (deliberately ungrammatical, roughly translates to 'The Them', or 'Those Guys') in 1968.

Premiata Forneria Marconi was officially formed in Milan in 1970 when the members of I Quelli met Mauro Pagani from the group Dalton.

After rejecting Isotta Fraschini (an Italian car maker) as a name the group finally settled on Pagani's suggestion, 'Forneria Marconi' (meaning 'Marconi Bakery'), borrowed from the sign of a shop in the small town of Chiari, near Brescia.

Italian progressive bands tended to have long names back then (Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno, etc.

In June 1971, PFM entered a competition-cum-music festival called the first 'Festival d'Avanguardia e Nuove Tendenze' in Viareggio, which they won, along with Osanna and Mia Martini.

It contained re-recorded versions of songs from the first single, as well as "È Festa" and "Dove... Quando..." which remain concert favorites.

New lyrics (not translations) were written by former King Crimson member (and ELP lyricist) Peter Sinfield who helped produce the new recording and mixing at Command Studios in London.

Songs included "Celebration" (a remake of "È Festa"), which received considerable airplay on album-oriented rock stations in the USA and Canada.

On the 1974 U.S. tour PFM played concerts with Little Feat, The Beach Boys, The Allman Brothers Band, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Peter Frampton and Dave Mason.

The lack of a strong lead vocalist had always been considered PFM's biggest liability, so they enrolled Bernardo Lanzetti, who was previously with the group Acqua Fragile.

The album's sound emphasizes acoustic, rather than electric guitar, and draws from Italian folk and Latin music as well as Jazz-Pop styles, somewhat like Steely Dan.

The group contributed new arrangements for De André's songs and the ensemble toured Italy and Europe to packed concert halls.

During the 1980s PFM enjoyed continued success at home while concentrating on commercial rock music for the mainstream Italian audience.

In 1980 Flavio Premoli left the group and built a successful career writing and performing music for Italian films and television.

Ulisse is a song cycle based on the Odyssey legend by Homer, with the contributions of noted Italian lyricist Vincenzo Incenzo.

The double CD edition contains two new studio tracks including a collaboration with Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator.

PFM then returned to the USA for the first time since 1977 to play the Progressive Arts Showcase at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 8 July 2005.

The video content ranges from fantasy-style vignettes made with computer graphics to archival black and white historic films.

The group included sections of their own music within the original De André's folk songs, adding instrumental progressive rock passages.

CD #1 comprises somewhat creative "arrangements" by PFM of famous classical works, such as "Il flauto magico" (Mozart), "Danza macabra" (C. Saint-Saëns), and "Romeo & Giulietta" (Prokofiev).

CD #2 offers "classical renditions" of some of PFM's best known titles, including "La luna nuova"; "Dove....Quando...."; "Maestro della voce"; and "Impressioni di Settembre".

In October 2021 the band released a new studio album I Dreamed of Electric Sheep - Ho sognato pecore elettriche.

Conceived as a Sci-Fi-themed conceptual opus, it signalled the return of original keyboardist Flavio Premoli as well as guest appearances by Ian Anderson on flute and Steve Hackett on guitar.