Never Gonna Give You Up


"Never Gonna Give You Up" is a song recorded by British singer and songwriter Rick Astley, released as a single on 27 July 1987. It was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. The song was released as the first single from Astley's debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody. The song was a worldwide number-one hit, initially in the United Kingdom in 1987, where it stayed at the top of the chart for five weeks and was the best-selling single of that year. It eventually topped the charts in 25 countries, including the United States and West Germany.
The song won Best British Single at the 1988 Brit Awards. In 1990, Nick Lowe quoted from the song and called it "ghastly" in the lyrics to "All Men Are Liars", a song on his album Party of One. In 2004, "Never Gonna Give You Up" was voted number 28 in 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs... Ever by VH1.
The music video for the song has become the basis for the "Rickrolling" Internet meme, leading the song to also be referred to as "The Rickroll Song". In 2008, Astley won the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Act Ever with the song, as a result of collective voting from thousands of people on the Internet, due to the popular phenomenon of Rickrolling. The song is considered Astley's signature song and it is often played at the end of his live concerts.
In 2019, Astley recorded and released a 'Pianoforte' version of the song for his album The Best of Me, which features a new piano arrangement.

Production

"Never Gonna Give You Up" was recorded at PWL Studios in South London, England. The song's basslines were produced using a Yamaha DX7 digital synthesizer, while a Linn 9000 was used for the drums and sequencing. Other equipment used included a Roland Juno 106 analog synthesizer, and Yamaha Rev5 and Rev7 reverberators.

Original success

On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" reached number one in the American Billboard Hot 100 after having been played by resident DJ, Larry Levan, at the Paradise Garage in 1987. The single topped the charts in 25 countries worldwide.
The single also reached the No. 1 spot on the year-end singles charts in the UK and South Africa.

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. Originally started by users on 4chan, by May 2007, the practice had achieved notoriety on the Internet, and it increased in popularity after its use as a 2008 April Fools' Day joke by various media companies and websites, including YouTube rickrolling all of its featured videos on that day and websites allowing people to rickroll their friends' devices.
In "a couple of weeks", about 13 million people had been tricked 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."
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".
There were reports that despite the video garnering millions of hits on YouTube, Astley earned almost no money from the online phenomenon, receiving only US$12 in royalties from YouTube for his performance share, as of August 2010, but Astley denied those reports in 2016.

Impact and legacy

Time Out listed "Never Gonna Give You Up" at number 33 in their The 50 best '80s songs list in 2018, adding: "Those synthesized strings, that thumping boots-and-pants beat, Astley's weirdly robust croon and his romantic-wooing-as-used-car-salesman pitch … It all adds up to three-and-a-half of the most effervescent minutes in the '80s canon."
During the live version of the song, Astley often says to the audience during the last verse, "We've known each other since 1987!" referencing to the year the song was released in and later in the verse, he sings "And if you ask me how I'm feeling" and then shouts "I'm feeling bloody marvellous!" In some countries, Astley will say things like "I'm doing pretty good!" or "I'm feeling fantastic, thank you very much!" instead of the usual 'bloody marvellous' comment.
In 2020, Daily Mirror listed the song at number 10 in their ranking of Top 50 happiest songs ever. Same year, The Guardian ranked it at number 44 in their list of The 100 greatest UK No 1s.

Cover versions

On 24 October 2009, the 1987 music video for "Never Gonna Give You Up", directed by Simon West, was uploaded to YouTube. It has over 715 million views as of July 2020. The interior shots were filmed at Harrow Club while shots taken outside were filmed on Freston Road, the same road where Harrow Club is situated.

Track listings

; 7" single
  1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:32
  2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:30
; 12" maxi
  1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 5:46
  2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 6:19
  3. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:32
  4. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 7:01
  5. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 6:23
; 12" maxi
  1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 5:48
  2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 6:21
  3. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:32
; 12" single
  1. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 6:30
  2. "Never Gonna Give You Up" – 7:00

    Personnel

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australia 8
South Africa 1
US Billboard Adult Contemporary8
US Billboard Hot 1004
US Cash Box2

All-time charts

Certifications and sales