"Never Gonna Give You Up" is the debut single recorded by English singer and songwriter

Rick Astley Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is an English singer, songwriter and radio personality, who has been active in music for several decades. He gained worldwide fame in the 1980s, having multiple hits including his signature song " Ne ...

, released on 27 July 1987. It is one of Astley's most famous songs. It was written and produced by

Stock Aitken Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s. SAW is considere ...

, and was released as the first single from Astley's debut album, ''

Whenever You Need Somebody ''Whenever You Need Somebody'' is the debut studio album by English singer Rick Astley, released on 16 November 1987 by RCA Records. It is his best-selling album and, according to his own official website, has sold 15.2 million copies worldwi ...

'' (1987). 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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

. The song won Best British Single at the 1988

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

. The song is considered Astley's

signature song A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...

and it is often played at the end of his live concerts. The music video for the song has become the basis for the " Rickrolling"

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

, in which a user expecting entirely unrelated content is shown the video. 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 Rickrolling meme. 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

bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched Part ( ...

s were produced using a

Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980 ...

digital synthesizer A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digit ...

, while a Linn 9000 was used for the

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

and

sequencing In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which suc ...

. Other equipment used included a

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

Juno 106 analog

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, and Yamaha Rev5 and Rev7 reverberators. Mike Stock stated that the Colonel Abrams hit " Trapped" (1985) was a big influence on "Never Gonna Give You Up", saying: "For Rick Astley's song I didn't want it to sound like Kylie or

Bananarama Bananarama are an English pop duo from London, formed as a trio in 1980 by friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Fahey left the group in 1988 and was replaced by Jacquie O'Sullivan until 1991, when the trio became a duo. T ...

so I looked at the Colonel Abrams track 'Trapped' and recreated that syncopated bassline in a way that suited our song." The title and concept for the song were suggested by Pete Waterman after Astley spoke to him of his devotion to his then girlfriend, with the song's tune, chords and lyrics then composed by Mike Stock and Matt Aitken. Initial mixing was done by Phil Harding, with the song's distinctive synthetic string and brass lines later added by Fairlight operator Ian Curnow. The final mix was provided by

PWL Pete Waterman Entertainment (PWE) is the production company one-time pop and dance record label owned by British pop mogul Pete Waterman. The label, originally PWL (Pete Waterman Limited), is most famous for being the home of hit record prod ...

remixer Pete Hammond, who made the vocals more prominent. His completed extended mix was edited down by Stock and Aitken to become the radio version.

Music video

The music video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" was directed by Simon West. It was filmed in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, largely around the

London Borough of Harrow The London Borough of Harrow () is a London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street (now the A5 road), Brent to the southeast, Ea ...

. Since being uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

on 24 October 2009, the video has received over 1.3 billion views(1.311) and 15 million likes(15.57); it surpassed the 1 billion views milestone on 28 July 2021, 34 years and 1 day after the song was released. It gets over 456K daily views and over 13.6M monthly views.

Original success

On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" reached number one in the American ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart after having been played by resident DJ,

Larry Levan Larry Levan (; born Lawrence Philpot, July 20, 1954 – November 8, 1992) was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern ...

, at the Paradise Garage in 1987. The single topped the charts in 25 countries worldwide. The single also reached the number 1 spot on the year-end singles charts in the UK and South Africa.

Impact and legacy

Assessing the status of the track as producers

's biggest and most enduring hit, composer Mike Stock confessed he struggled to completely understand why the song had struck such a chord, but suggested its massive success was down to a combination of the song, the singer, and the international clout of record label RCA. ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an engine ...

'' 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 ('You wouldn't get this from any other guy')… It all adds up to three-and-a-half of the most effervescent minutes in the '80s canon." The song was reportedly played as part of a psychological campaign to convince Panamanian dictator

Manuel Noriega Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (; February 11, 1934 – May 29, 2017) was a Panamanian dictator, politician and military officer who was the ''de facto'' ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. An authoritarian ruler who amassed a personal f ...

to surrender during the

United States invasion of Panama The United States invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, lasted over a month between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. It occurred during the administration of President George H. W. Bush and ten years after the Torrijos� ...

in 1989, along with other songs such as

the Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the w ...

's cover of " I Fought the Law". In April 2020, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' ranked it at number 44 in their list of ''The 100 greatest UK No 1s''. ''

Classic Pop Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...

'' ranked the song number 4 in their list of ''Top 40 Stock Aitken Waterman songs'' in 2021. The

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning sitcom '' Ted Lasso'' featured the song prominently in the season two episode "No Weddings and a Funeral", including a scene where Rebecca Welton (played by Hannah Waddingham) begins to sing it in the middle of her father's funeral. Astley himself commented of the episode, "Waddingham...did an amazing, incredible job. It was so emotional, so moving, so incredible. People have said they even cried (during) the church scene." In August 2022, the CSAA Insurance Group, an insurer for the

American Automobile Association American Automobile Association (AAA – commonly pronounced as "Triple A") is a federation of motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a privately held not-for-profit national member association and service organization with over 60 m ...

, released a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

featuring Rick Astley, with scenes recreated from the original ''Never Gonna Give You Up'' music video.

Rickrolling

"Never Gonna Give You Up" is the subject of an

known as "rickrolling" involving misleading links (commonly shortened URLs) redirecting to the song's music video. Originally started by users on

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...

, 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 April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...

joke by various media companies and websites—including YouTube, which rickrolled all of its featured videos on that day—allowing people to easily rickroll their friends' devices. "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 The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' in late March 2008, adding: "That's what's brilliant about the Internet." Astley also appeared in the 2008

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States wit ...

, interrupting a song performed by those on a float promoting the

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

programme ''

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'' (also known as ''Foster's Home'', or simply ''Foster's'' for short) is an American animated television series created by Craig McCracken for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios as ...

'' 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 $12 in royalties from YouTube for his performance share as of August 2010. In 2016, Astley said he never bothered to figure out how much money he earned from YouTube and clarified that he had also been paid "a chunk of money" by

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

to appear in a commercial and for an appearance at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Track listings

;7" single #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (7" Vocal mix) – 3:32 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Instrumental) – 3:30 ;12" maxi #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Cake mix) – 5:46 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Instrumental) – 6:19 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:32 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Escape to New York mix) – 7:01 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Escape from Newton mix) – 6:23 ;12" maxi #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Cake mix) – 5:48 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Instrumental) – 6:21 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" – 3:32 ;12" single #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Escape from Newton mix) – 6:30 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Escape to New York mix) – 7:00 On 29 July 2021, to celebrate 1 billion views on YouTube, Rick Astley released a limited and numbered 7" blue vinyl. Only 2,500 were signed and sold. #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (7" Vocal mix) – 3:32 #"Never Gonna Give You Up" (Pianoforte) – 3:30

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Cover versions

*In 1997, French

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Ma ...

2Be3 covered the song under the name "Toujours là pour toi", which peaked at No. 4 in France and No. 12 in Belgium (Wallonia). *A group of London dance producers called the Rickrollerz made a

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

cover version of "Never Gonna Give You Up". In May 2008, the track entered the UK Club Charts at no. 22.

References