Gino Vannelli

About

Gino Vannelli (born June 16, 1952) is a Canadian rock/jazz/fusion/pop vocalist, producer, performer and Hall of Fame songwriter (inducted Oct. 17, 2025). Gino had produced several commercially successful songs in the 1970s and 1980s. His best-known singles include “People Gotta Move” (1974), “I Just Wanna Stop” (1978), “Living Inside Myself” (1981) and “Wild Horses” (1987). Gino has a loyal international fan base and has been featured on albums and stages around the world for over 5 decades.

Vannelli was born to an Italian family in Montreal, Quebec. His father, (Joseph) Russ Vannelli, sang with the Montreal dance bands of trumpeters Bix Belair and Maynard Ferguson. His early ambition was to be a drummer. He admired Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, and he played drums in a pop band while he was in high school. In 1969, at the age of seventeen, he signed a contract with RCA Records, using the name Vann Elli. He studied music theory at McGill University in Montreal. Buddy Rich later covered Vannelli’s songs “Storm At Sunup” and “Love Me Now” on his album Speak No Evil.
Vannelli and his brother, Joe, moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Desperate and broke, they waited for hours in the…