Never Gonna Give You Up

"Never Gonna Give You Up" is a song by British singer Rick Astley. It was written and produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman. The song was released as the first single from Astley's multi-million selling debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody. The song was a worldwide number-one hit, initially in the singer's native United Kingdom in 1987, where it stayed at number one for five weeks and was the best-selling single of that year. It eventually topped the charts in 25 countries, including the US and West Germany.^[1]

The song won Best British Single at the 1988 Brit Awards. The music video for the song has become the basis for the "Rickrolling" Internet meme.

In 2004, it was voted #28 in 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs ... Ever by VH1. In 2008, Rick Astley won the MTV EMA awards for "Best Act Ever" with the song "Never Gonna Give You Up", as a result of collective voting from thousands of people on the internet, due to the popular phenomenon of rickrolling.

Music video

In the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video, directed by Simon West,^[2] and edited by Robert Bannochie, a smiling Astley sings and dances to the song in various outfits and venues in west London, sometimes accompanied by backup dancers. A bartender played by Clive Clarke gradually shifts from casually noticing Astley's singing to being fully engrossed in the song with energetic acrobatic moves. The athletic exertion of many of the other dancers also becomes more intense over the course of Astley's performance.

Rickrolling

"Never Gonna Give You Up" is the subject of a popular Internet prank known as "rickrolling" involving misleading links redirecting to the song's music video. By May 2007, the practice had achieved notoriety on the Internet, and it increased in popularity after its use as a 2008 April Fool's Day joke by various media companies and websites, including YouTube rickrolling all of its featured videos on that day and a website allowing people to Rickroll their friends' phones.^[3]

In 'a couple of weeks', about 13 million people had been 'rickrolled' into watching Astley's video, the BBC reported on 1 April 2008. "I think it's just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it," Astley told the Los Angeles Times in late March 2008, adding: "That's what's brilliant about the Internet." ^[4][5]

Rick Astley also appeared in the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade interrupting a song performed by those on a float promoting the Cartoon Network program Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends with a lipsynched performance of "Never Gonna Give You Up".

In several of its protests against Scientology, Anonymous has employed The Rickroll.^[6]

Cover versions

• In 1997, the French band 2Be3 covered the song under the name "Toujours là pour toi", which had a great success in France (number four) and Belgium (Wallonia) (number 12).^[7]
• In 1999, an Italian cover titled "Non ti lascerò" was made by Fiorello.^[8]
• Eurobeat artist Kevin Johnson covered the song in 2004 for the album Super Eurobeat 149.^[9]
• In August 2007, internet celebrity and singer, Tay Zonday covered the song ^[10]
• In 2007, the song was featured in the Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires", as part of a parody of the "Johnny B. Goode" scene from Back to the Future. Brian performs the song while playing the keytar.
• On 25 November 2008, Barry Manilow released a version of the song on his The Greatest Songs of the Eighties album.^[11]
• In 2008, it was covered by Ashley Tisdale for the Degree Girl: OMG Jams!
• Actress Portia de Rossi recorded a comedic version as her character Veronica Palmer which was heard playing as elevator music in the January 2010 Better Off Ted episode "Beating a Dead Workforce".
• In June 2010, a cover from Breathe Electric was released on the compilation Rockin' Romance 2.
• In November 2010, The Lost Fingers released a version of the song on their album Gypsy Kameleon.
• In November 2010, Grammy award-winning musician Andy Rehfeldt released a heavy metal cover of the song.^[12]

The Rickrollerz

A group of London dance producers, called The Rickrollerz made a house music cover version of "Never Gonna Give You Up"^[13] The song was remixed on the same day and in the same studio where the original recording took place 20 years earlier. In May 2008, the track entered the UK Club Charts at number 22.

Track listings

7" single

1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:33
2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (instrumental) – 3:30

12" maxi

1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (cake mix)  – 5:46
2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (instrumental) – 6:19
3. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:33
4. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (escape to New York mix)  – 7:01
5. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (escape from Newton mix)  – 6:23

12" maxi

1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (cake mix) – 5:48
2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (instrumental) – 3:30
3. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:33

12" single

1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (escape from Newton mix)  – 6:30
2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (escape to New York mix)  – 7:00

Personnel

• Written and produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman
• Engineer : Mark McGuire, Mike Duffy
• Mixed by :
  • Escape from Newton mix : Mixmaster Pete Hammond
  • Escape to New York mix : The Extra Beat Boys

Charts and certifications

Successions

References