Never Gonna Give You Up
"Never Gonna Give You Up" is a song by English singer Rick Astley, released on 27 July 1987. Written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, it was released by RCA Records as the first single from Astley's debut studio album, Whenever You Need Somebody (1987). The song became a worldwide 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 charts in 25 different countries, including the United States and West Germany,[7] and winning Best British Single at the 1988 Brit Awards. The song is widely regarded as Astley's most popular, as well as his signature song, and it is often played at the end of his live concerts.
This article is about the song by Rick Astley. For the Internet meme involving the song, see Rickrolling. For other uses, see Never Gonna Give You Up (disambiguation).The music video for the song, directed by Simon West, surged in popularity in 2007 due to the bait-and-switch "Rickroll" Internet meme. In 2008, Astley won the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Act Ever with the song, as a result of a collective campaign from thousands of people on the Internet.[8] In 2019, Astley recorded and released a new 'Pianoforte' arrangement of the song for his album The Best of Me.[9] In 2023, Billboard magazine ranked "Never Gonna Give You Up" among the 500 best pop songs of all time.[5]
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.[10]
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 so I looked at the Colonel Abrams track 'Trapped' and recreated that syncopated bassline in a way that suited our song."[11]
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.[12] Initial mixing was done by Phil Harding, with the song's distinctive synthetic string and brass lines later added by Fairlight operator Ian Curnow.[12] The final mix was provided by PWL 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.[12]
Music video
The music video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" was directed by Simon West. It was filmed in London, largely around Freston Road in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.[13] Since being uploaded to YouTube on 25 October 2009, the video has received nearly 1.5 billion views and 16 million likes; it surpassed the 1 billion views milestone on 28 July 2021.[14][15]
Critical reception
A review in Pan-European magazine Music & Media presented "Never Gonna Give You Up" as a "carefree and cheerful pop ditty, sung with that youthful, muscular voice".[16]
Chart performance
On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" reached number one in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart[17] after having been played by resident DJ, Larry Levan, at the Paradise Garage in 1987.[18] The single topped the charts in 25 countries worldwide.[7]
The single also reached the number 1 spot on the year-end singles charts in the UK and South Africa.[19][20]