Adriano Celentano co-wrote the song and it originally appeared in March 1966 on his 'La festa' album and on his follow-up album 'Il ragazzo della via Gluck', released in November 1966. The song was launched at the Sanremo Festival in 1966 with little success and was eliminated from competition after the first night. But it gained great favour with his fans making it his best-known and most representative song with many autobiographical references; Via Gluck was the street of Milan where he lived as a boy with the family, and "eight years" ("...passano gli anni, ma 8 son lunghi...." meaning "the years go by ... 8 long years....") is a reference to the top of his recording career from 1958 to 1966. The same year American singer Verdelle Smith released her English version "Tar and Cement", with songwriting credit to Paul Vance, Lee Pockriss, Luciano Beretta, Michele Del Prete, and Adriano Celentano. It was her only hit and made it to No 1 in Australia and No 38 in the US.

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