"It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" is a 1987 song by English singer-songwriter

Rick Astley Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is an English singer, radio DJ and podcaster. He gained fame through his association with the production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, releasing the 1987 album ''Whenever You Need Somebody'', which sol ...

. Written by

Stock Aitken Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW and also known as the Hit Factory) 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 throug ...

, it was released as the fifth single from Astley's debut album '' Whenever You Need Somebody''. It was mainly intended for the American market where it was a top ten hit, and was not released in the United Kingdom and most of Europe.

Background and release

The B-side "You Move Me" written by Rick Astley was featured in the movie ''

Cocktail A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic beverage, alcoholic. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more liquor, spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, Shrub (drink), shrubs, and ...

''. Producer

Pete Waterman Peter Alan Waterman (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, and television personality. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterman production and songwriting team, he co-wrote and co-produced many UK hit singles. An av ...

excitedly dragged Astley into his office and played Astley a

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

of the trailer of the movie and Astley was stunned that his song was played all the way through it. Waterman neglected to tell Astley that it was only in the trailer and not the movie.

Chart performance

"It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" reached number one in Canada, number ten on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number one for one week on the

Hot Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart.

Track listing

*7" and cassette single # "It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" – 3:39 # "You Move Me" – 3:40 *12" single # "It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" (Matt's Jazzy Guitar mix) – 7:46 # "It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" (instrumental) – 3:39 # "It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" – 3:39 # "You Move Me" – 3:40

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Personnel

* Rick Astley – lead vocals * Matt Aitken – guitars, keyboards * Mike Stock – keyboards * "A. Linn" –

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, often erroneously referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Development The LinnDrum was designed by the American engineer Roger Linn. It was ...

programming * Ian Curnow – Fairlight programming * Dee Lewis, Shirley Lewis, Mae McKenna, Suzanne Rhatigan – backing vocals

References

{{authority control 1987 songs 1988 singles Rick Astley songs Song recordings produced by Stock Aitken Waterman Songs written by Pete Waterman Songs written by Matt Aitken Songs written by Mike Stock (musician) RPM Top Singles number-one singles RCA Records singles