We’re all Rick Astley. Unknowingly, Rick Astley became part of us.
“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and just happened to have a voice that people like,” said Astley about being catapulted into stardom in 1987 with his song “Never Gonna Give You Up.” This became an unexpected hit from an unlikely source.
“I wasn’t a natural born pop star,” stated Astley. “I’m not sure who that guy is but I’ll just pretend to be him for a while.”
“Never Gonna Give You Up” was released on Monday, July 27, 1987, as the lead single from Astley’s debut album Whenever You Need Somebody. The song first shot up to the top of the UK charts, then exploded on the dance charts, and reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in mid-March 1988, overtaking George Michael’s “Father Figure.”
Billboard wrote, “this 21-year-old U.K. export has surprised most with a very soulful and mature vocal style belied by his little-boy red hair and freckles.” This was followed by the observation that “whether Astley’s formidable vocal skills are enough to build a career on remains to be seen.”
Rick Astley never gave up, but did decide to retire at the age of 27, only to find himself unexpectedly an internet sensation in the inbox of millions.
Unrecognizable
Astley grew up in Newton-le-Willows, a small town in Merseyside, England, located between Liverpool and Manchester. His home, which was a two-room Portakabin in the middle of the field, was a hostile one led by his unpredictable father who suspected his mother had an affair and kicked her out of the house, leaving all her belongings on the doorstep. Astley stayed with his dad, who worked and owned a garden centre, along with his two older brothers and sister. There was another brother that died from meningitis as a young child.
Music was present in the home. His dad “hated pop music” and when he was in a good mood he’d listen to colliery brass-band music and sing Frank Sinatra’s “You Make Me Feel So Young”, but “changed the words so it was ‘you make me feel so old.'” Otherwise, Astley would listen to the collection of his brothers and sister, which included Motown and Northern soul, Genesis, Rick Wakeman, Camel, Joni Mitchell, The Smiths, and Marvin Gaye. The first record Astley owned was “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer, which was given to him from buying a pair of jeans.
“The first band I remember really loving myself, and which didn’t have anything to do with my brothers or sister, where I actually bought the record, rather than absorbing it as it was played around the house, or being given it free with a pair of jeans, was The Police. Then I heard AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. I remember listening to it on the radio, sitting completely transfixed,” said Astley.
“I used to sneak into Jayne’s room and play her records when she wasn’t there: ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ by Joni Mitchell, ‘What’s Going On’ by Marvin Gaye. I used to stare and stare at the sleeve of What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye standing in the rain in a suit and a raincoat, with his collar up. I didn’t think he looked the kind of person who’d make an album like What’s Going On, which was gorgeous and melodic, or sing the way the guy on What’s Going On sang, with a beautiful, sad, pleading voice,” recalled Astley. “He didn’t even look like a pop star to me; he looked more like a movie star, a Black version of Steve McQueen or Paul Newman; he seemed serious, powerful, a bit dangerous, like someone you wouldn’t mess with. He looked as if he didn’t care whether you liked his album or not. That was interesting – that you could look a certain way, but sound completely different.”
When his father was in a “serious rage,” Astley said “being distracted by anything outside our house just made me feel better.”
“I just didn’t want to go home. If I could stay on at school for an hour or two, yeah, I’ll do that,” stated Astley. “I went into one of the music rooms at school. We had this little crappy drum kit. I just kind of picked up the sticks and was thrashing around and could sort of play straight away, just instinctively. It just felt good to just smash the hell out of a drum kit. And I played drums every moment I could. All I wanted to do, really, was be in a band.”
“I wasn’t particularly great academically – so no one could call me a nerd or a swot – and I wasn’t bottom of the class either. I wasn’t wildly popular, but neither was I a loner. I merely wanted to pass under the radar,” said Astley. “I decided the best course of action was to become inconspicuous and ordinary as possible.”
Although he did have a motorbike jacket, which he traded with a kid at school for a used Ajax drum kit. “I’d always fancied playing the drums. I don’t know why – maybe it was something to do with getting your aggression out,” said Astley.
With his dad’s approval, he set up in the greenhouse and started drumming along to The Police and AC/DC. Eventually he formed a band with friends Geoff, who had a bass, and Phil, who had an electric guitar. They called themselves Give Way, practiced, and could play songs like “Mr Tambourine Man” by Bob Dylan, “Transmission” by Joy Division, and “So Lonely” by The Police, which Astley sang.
When the school was taking auditions for the upcoming Valentine’s disco, Give Way decided to give it a shot. They played against other bands that “in the social ranking of the school they were right at the top.” Regardless, Give Way won. “We absolutely wiped the floor with them. They were all right, but we were loads better. Even the teachers looked surprised.”
Once his dad found out, he also looked surprised, then looked at his drum kit and asked, “You’re going to go play a show with that? Right. Come on, we’re going to get you a proper drum kit.” And out they went to buy a new Pearl drum kit, an act that showed the opposite of the unpredictable rage was a reminder of love.
At Give Way‘s first live show they played 5 songs. “People liked us; we went down great. And simply being seen on stage, in a band, seemed to shift my position at school a little. It was as if I’d found a kind of niche, something I could be known for that wasn’t the Astleys’ peculiar living arrangements, or my dad’s eccentricity, or my brother Mike’s reputation preceding me — something I didn’t mind being known for. Maybe it planted an idea in my head that playing music could change things for me, and change them for the better. I also couldn’t help noticing that in the aftermath of the gig, I got five Valentine’s cards, which was five more than I’d ever received before.”
Give Way inevitably folded when Phil went to university. Astley was asked to be the drummer in a local band called FBI who played cover songs by The Shadows, Big Country, Orange Juice, Bauhaus, and The Beatles. “I didn’t really want to be in a covers band… that wasn’t where my ambitions lay,” stated Astley.
The band played in local pubs and social clubs, and even secured a local manager named Dave Warwick. When the lead singer quit, Warwick said “we were looking round for a singer, when the drummer said he could do a bit of singing and wrote a bit.” Astley became the lead singer of FBI, dropped the drumming and wrote a few songs, including “Shake your arse!,” and “The Taming of the Shrew.”
“So I wrote a couple of tunes, went into rehearsals one day and sang them, and everyone just looked at me and went, ‘Well, you’re singing them, then’,” stated Astley. “I don’t know when my voice broke exactly, but I just always sang like that.”
After about 12 months, Warwick brought record producer Pete Waterman of Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) to watch some bands play at the Monk Social Club.
“I was ill. I had flu — really, really bad flu. But I’d promised to be there. I remember this little band coming on, and I couldn’t take my eyes off Rick. He reminded me of Van Morrison straight away. The songs weren’t very good, but with Rick, I definitely thought, ‘There’s something here,'” Waterman recalled. “As I was walking out, to go back to bed,” Waterman continues, “I said to Dave Warwick, who had set the evening up, ‘Dump the band, I’ll take the singer,'” Waterman recalled.
Waterman offered Astley the opportunity to move to London and record songs, but he didn’t want to leave his bandmates, so he turned down the offer. FBI kept practicing and performing at clubs around town, and Astley was delivery driver at his dad’s gardening business, but his patience wore thin.
“I said to Pete he’s not ready yet, and over the next 6-8 months the band could see that Rick was getting more popular than the band,” Warwick recalled.
“I wasn’t sure that FBI was going to work. I’d started to sense the other members of the band weren’t as committed as I was,” said Astley. “In fairness, I could see why they weren’t as dedicated as I was – none of them were living in a Portakabin in the middle of a garden centre with a certifiable nutcase who smashed things when he couldn’t find the right drill bit.”
“I’d tried laying down the law to them… I’d suddenly announced that I was going to be as famous as David Bowie and that the rest of them could either come with me or sod off. I suppose the idea was to spur them into action, but it didn’t work. They merely looked at me, like you might look at a teenager who worked in his dad’s garden centre and had just announced he was going to be Newton-le-Willows’ answer to David Bowie. I’d stormed out. I walked home to the garden centre feeling like a complete twat.”
“I rang Pete up and said he was ready now,” said Warwick.
London calling
“Pete Waterman got in touch a couple of times over the next few months. So I went down to see him, because he was really interested in signing just me. I didn’t feel great about it. I was going there without the band. They were my mates, and it felt alien to just go, ‘So I’m just gonna be me on my own—that’s it?'” said Astley. “In the end, I just sort of thought, ‘Oh, sod this. I’m just gonna give it a try. I’ll get in a real studio, we’ll make a single. It’ll probably die a death, but what an experience. I’m 19. Whatever, let’s just do it.’ So I signed a little deal.”
Astley signed with PWL (Pete Waterman Limited), the overarching company, recording studio, and headquarters for the SAW production team. Known as “The Hit Factory,” SAW had developed a reputation for creating chart-topping pop with assembly-line efficiency. Their hits included Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” Bananarama’s “Venus,” and Kylie Minogue’s “I Should Be So Lucky.”
When Astley arrived at the SAW studio in London, his impression was that he’d be making a record, but ended up doing all the “crappy jobs” for about a year, such as making the tea and coffee, sandwiches, and biscuits for staff and other artists. “First I was like, ‘Really? Is that what I’ve signed to do?'” said Astley.
Waterman stated that he knew Astley had talent but needed to refine his skills, stating, “I felt he needed some depth in the music industry, so I thought if he’d learn the recording techniques, it would be good for him.”
“At this juncture, Mike and I had not heard Rick sing, so we didn’t really know what we were dealing with,” recalled Matt Aitken. “Finally, when I got him on the microphone, I’m listening, I couldn’t believe the voice,” said Mike Stock.
“His appearance didn’t match the sound, you know. It was an oddity,” stated Aitken.
“So I said to Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, ‘I think Rick’s too good to do a cover. We should write something for him.’ And we set to work,” Stock said. The trio worked with Astley for months on songs.
Shortly thereafter, while driving with Astley to the studio, Waterman had a heated discussion with his girlfriend and threw down the car phone. Astley said to him, “You’re never gonna give her up!”
“I went, ‘Wow, that’s an idea for a song,'” said Waterman. “We came to work. I distinctly remember running through the studio door… Finding our keyboard player in the building, I said, ‘Get this tune down quick for me.’ And I sang him this really simple tune—Da-la, la-la-la, da-la-la-la-la. And I had the title ‘Never Gonna Give You Up.’ I certainly didn’t have, ‘Never Gonna Let You Down.'”
SAW quickly worked on the lyrics while Astley went to the microphone and started singing and completing the vocals “within an hour.” This was December 2, 1986.
“We finished the recording and we left it on the shelf. We weren’t sure what we had. How stupid can you get? You could see when you get it wrong, but we weren’t very smart sometimes when we had it perfectly right,” said Stock.
Astley recalls one of the reasons for the shelving “Never Gonna Give You Up” was because, “I think they were unconvinced of my voice and the way I looked and me being able to front it. And to be honest, I think they were kind of right.”
“We wanted to write the song we knew Rick would carry off. That’s what it was all about. I always knew that, once people heard him, this red-headed kid from Lancashire with that voice, the impact would be instant,” said Waterman.
Waterman decided it was time to showcase Astley.
“I made him do this audition, which was a terrible thing to do, really. He didn’t have a record deal at the time, but everybody was pestering us to do something. I had this friend called Peter Robinson, at RCA, so I rang him and went, ‘Look, I’ve got this kid from Lancashire I want you to hear.’ And we set up two speakers in reception, and a microphone,” said Waterman. “And we didn’t turn the switchboard off… So there’s a girl behind us, taking phonecalls. But it worked. At the end, Peter just went, ‘You’ve got a deal. This kid is unbelievable. If he can do that, here, that’s all I need to see. What do you want?'”
SAW thought it would be a good idea to “soft launch” Astley and partnered up with singer Lisa Fabien for a duet called “When You Gonna,” a “Euro-inflected house technonumber” about relationship promises. Astley and Fabien trade lines about love, broken vows, loneliness, and committing to stay together with the lyrics of “love, honour, cherish and obey.” The debut single by “Rick & Lisa” was released May 1987 and hit No. 11 on the US Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.
“It was like your brother or your son was here. We all supported him,” said Waterman. “So we had this tape with Rick singing ‘Never Gonna Give You Up.’ Rick got frustrated with us, you know, not issuing it. So I sent the tape to the Mix Mag.”
This happened August of 1987.
“They did a sample on their monthly tape. Driving down the motorway and listening to Capital, and then suddenly, Rick came on. So I rang up Capital and said, ‘You know, where have you got this record from?’ And they’d edited it together for the Mix Mag tape,” stated Waterman. “It’s getting so much play, we can’t really change it. Radio stations, it suddenly went from nowhere to number one in about a week because people just rang in and said, ‘What is this record? Play it and play it.'”
The frustration that Astley felt over the unreleased track, followed by the moment the single was sent to the media, and Never Gonna Give You Up being edited and amplified, created a sequence of events where the song lived into its own promise and became a massive hit.
Astley said, “It just went so fast. It was unreal. We only made the video in the week it went to number one. I don’t think I’d ever been in front of an actual camera. Nobody said to me, ‘This is what it’s going to be like.’ ‘Now we need a video. Just get him there and make a video.’ And they were so unprepared to make the video, all the clothes in that video were mine. The stripy T-shirt and the blazer, the double denim, the turtleneck. People think that raincoat is something somebody dreamed up. It was mine, for God’s sake. Boom. It’s all mine.”
People heard the voice but wanted see the face.
A press release was sent out that gave background on the mystery man Rick Astley. The opening paragraph was “There was one minute in late September when ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ was just another pop single in England. Listeners were forgiven if they assumed its singer was the latest American soul stormer when they heard that voice. But only for that minute. Because it didn’t take much more than that for the song to rise to #1 on the British charts (where it stayed for five weeks), and for fans to register the shock of finally realizing the responsible party was a red-haired, freckly-faced 21 year-old English native named Rick Astley.”
The closing paragraph discussed the “fair-haired soul singer” views on his surge in global stardom, noting “Rick’s sudden rise to stardom is something he remains fairly philosophical about. ‘I really can’t handle the ‘getting recognized’ bit at all. I don’t understand what’s going on. I was dropping someone off in the street the other night when someone pulled alongside his car. It was, ‘It’s him, it’s him!’ But I still find it hard to relate to. When you go up to someone you either think, ‘What a disappointment,’ or ‘Wow, devastating!’ I just don’t think I’m one of the devastating ones.'”
Astley was 21 years old when “Never Gonna Give You Up” was released, stating, “I can kind of understand that people would think I looked completely different than what I sounded like—a red-haired kid with freckles. I mean, let’s face it, I looked about 11 years old. People just looked at me and went, ‘What? That guy is singing it?’ But I think that’s part of the charm of it. I mean, charming is a very nice way to put it.”
The reaction to the song and video was immediate, Waterman said “that video became iconic. I mean, wherever you went in the world, in the eighties, everybody did that dance and everybody talks about the video.”
On the back of the album, Astley proudly declared, “It’s taken two years to get this record into your hands. I would like to thank my managers Dave and Tony and all at David Anthony Promotions, Pete, Matt, Mike, Phil, Ian, Daize and everyone at PWL and RCA — for all their support, hard work and friendship, what has happened to me this year would not have been possible without every one of you.”
Never Gonna Give You Up quickly reached #1 on the UK singles chart in August 1987, where it stayed for five weeks. It also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 on March 12, 1988.
“Because it was new, it just felt great. I’m going to Rome. I’m going to Tokyo. Great. Bring it on,” said Astley. “It went from just being a lot of fun for everybody to it being pretty frickin’ intense. Three or four years of just going boom, boom, boom every single day… It just burnt me out. A lot of the things that I really loved about music and wanting to make music had no relevance anymore. I just felt like a traveling salesman who could be selling nuts, to be honest. The actual music part of it was so small in the whole business of it. I had to kind of almost put my foot down to be able to go and play live because it was just about making records and being on TV. And that’s all they wanted me to do. It became so weird to me, just flying around the world, doing interviews, talking about something I’m supposed to be good at doing. After a while, it just became so insignificant, the actual music, that I just – I don’t know, I just didn’t want to do it anymore.”
After the success of Whenever You Need Somebody, Astley produced three more studio albums that established him as one of the most successful pop artists of the 1980s. By the time 1993 rolled around, he had a daughter and was physically and mentally exhausted and decided to retire from the pressure at the age of 27.
“I’d become a dad. I was wealthy. I’d had fame and realized I’m not really interested in being famous. It does nothing for me,” said Astley. “I think I recognized, time for you to quit this all. Time for you to walk away. I want to be at home with my daughter. And that’s what I did.”
Fast-forward fourteen years, in 2007, Astley is on holiday with his wife and daughter in Italy and receives an email from a friend. “Well, he sent me something to look at. I click on the link and then all of a sudden, boom. The video for ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ starts. And I’m like, ‘Okay, why is he definitely sending that?’,” said Astley. “And I say to him, ‘Okay, yeah, funny. Whatever. We’re on holiday. I’ll speak to you soon.’ And he does it again. And I think it was a different link this time even. But sure enough, a few seconds later… I called him. I said, ‘What—what are you doing?’ And he’s laughing. And he said, ‘Well, it’s a Rick Roll.'”
The “Rickroll” was created by Omaha, Nebraska’s own Shawn Cotter. It’s him who is credited with starting the first “Rickroll” on the message board 4chan on May 15, 2007.
His motivation was simple: “Every gamer across the globe was awaiting the arrival of GTA:IV. I used to frequent an image-board called 4Chan, and they were having a discussion about what was to be included in that game. Just a few days earlier, I was looking to download some older music (90’s and 80’s). This song was one that I had snagged, because it was one of the top hits in Britain the year I was born. 4Chan used to have a meme called “duckrolling” in which someone would get another unsuspecting user to click a link and it was nothing more than a picture of a duck with wheels,” said Cotter. “So, back to the internet debate: I decided to show people the new trailer that Rockstar had put out for the next year release of GTA. Of course, nobody suspected that there was no trailer video, when the video started, the user would instead be listening to the soothing sound of Rick Astley, and the video caption said ‘You just got Rickroll’d’.”
From there, it spread across the internet and became a meme, if not the meme.
“A mere 5 days later — Family Guy popularized MY VIDEO. They aired an episode called “Meet the quagmires” which shows the gang going back in time, and ends with Brian playing the Rick Astley hit on a keytar. This, added to the fact that the Rickroll was an internet sensation, boosted the video to infamy forever,” stated Cotter.
“I’ve been absolutely fine with it. We have a daughter… When that kind of started… she literally sat me down on the couch and said, ‘You do realize it’s got nothing to do with you?’ I thought, ‘Yeah, she’s absolutely right. It doesn’t. It’s just a song somebody chose to do this prank with.’ So, I kind of think, I don’t own it anymore. It’s nothing to do with me—this is something else,” said Astley.
Lyrically: Never Gonna Give You Up
Never Gonna Give You Up tells a story of a relationship built on promises: never leaving, never lying, never causing pain. This was true at the time for Pete Waterman in the car that inspired the idea, and true with Rick Astley, who met his now wife when his fame took off in 1987.
“I met my wife, Lene Bausager, in 1987. She was working in marketing at my record label in Denmark. I fell in love with her the day I met her. I did get to see her briefly again a few weeks later in London, then a year after that over a cup of tea while on tour in Denmark. We started writing to each other and I’d rack up some big phone bills calling her from all over the world,” said Astley. “When I got back from a Japan tour, we officially started dating. That was in the spring of 1989.”
When it came to the lyrics, SAW had to figure out the why behind the promise.
“I remember we had a sort of ethos discussion as to, well, why is he never going to give her up? And Mike said, “Come on, let’s not be too clever about this. He’s a simple lad from up north. He’s never going to give her up because he loves her.” Fine. He doesn’t say much, really. It just says, “I love you, and you can see that I love you.” So happy days and rainbows, and it all ends happily ever after,” recalled Aitken.
“Lyrically, I probably wasn’t even that focused on it,” stated Astley. “Mike Stock sang the lyrics to me. He’d just sort of sing it to you in your ear, and he’d do that three or four or five times until you were singing it back to him. And then you’d go in the room.”
We’re no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment’s what I’m thinkin’ of
You wouldn’t get this from any other guy
I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling
Gotta make you understand
These opening lyrics from ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ establish common ground. They acknowledge a shared understanding of how the game of love works: “We’re no strangers to love / You know the rules and so do I.”
The promise of “a full commitment” elevates his qualities above others, suggesting “any other guy” cannot offer this. “I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling” is a declaration of his intentions to reveal feelings in a way that his words are understood.
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
The chorus of “Never Gonna Give You Up” is an eightfold promise to love, honour, cherish and obey.
“Never gonna give you up” and “Never gonna let you down” reveal a dedication to stand by his partner unconditionally. The remaining promises of “Never gonna run around and desert you,” “Never gonna make you cry,” “Never gonna say goodbye,” and “Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you” show the loyalty to avoid any action that would cause pain.
We’ve known each other for so long
Your heart’s been aching, but you’re too shy to say it
Inside, we both know what’s been going on
We know the game and we’re gonna play it
The verse brings tension between their long-standing friendship and unspoken feelings. He knows “your heart’s been aching, but you’re too shy to say it.” The statement “We know the game and we’re gonna play it” signals a willingness to break down those emotional barriers and make a move.
And if you ask me how I’m feeling
Don’t tell me you’re too blind to see
These lyrics bring a sense of frustration, urging the other person to stop pretending not to notice their shared feelings.
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
The remainder of the song repeats the chorus, driving home the eightfold promise to love, honour, cherish and obey.
“Never Gonna Give You Up” topped the charts in over 25 countries. It earned the British Single of the Year at the 1988 Brit Awards and the Top Dance Sales 12″ Single at the 1988 Billboard Music Awards. The music video ranks No. 67 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Music Videos of All Time list.
“It’s amazing, but it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, and I mean that because without Rick, the song doesn’t work. Rick’s got something unique in his voice, and that’s empathy. He felt the song. He made it his own. Long may it continue,” stated Waterman.
“‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ is my biggest song, always has been, always will be,” said Astley. There’s just no getting away from it. And I’ve sort of come full circle and now can embrace it for what it is fully. It’s the song that keeps giving. Some magic happened when that song got recorded, and it just won’t give up. I can’t say it, can I? It’ll never give you up.”
