With his mother's permission (his father had died a few months earlier), he moved to Madrid in 1961 at the age of sixteen, where he recorded his first four songs.

His song "Himno de la alegría" (Hymn of Joy) was an extract of the last movement of the ninth symphony of Beethoven and appeared at the height of what was known as symphonic rock.

It was released in both North America and the United Kingdom as "A Song of Joy" in May 1970 on the A&M Records label, where combined sales in the U.S. and Canada reached the one million mark in July.

In 1980, one of his most successful songs, "Santa Lucía", a ballad by Argentinian Roque Narvaja, appeared in his Rocanrol bumerang album.

Rock and Rios is also considered a cultural marker for the transformation of Spanish society, as it slowly begun to enjoy the freedoms of a democracy born only six years earlier.

In 1983, Miguel Ríos published his tenth studio album, The rock of a summer night, with which he made his biggest tour, accompanied by artists such as Luz Casal and Leño as opening acts.

A year later he published the album La encrucijada and in 1985, Rock en el ruedo, a compilation with his greatest hits to date and which included an unreleased song.