Rick Astley

Two decades after it became a mantra of late-’80s pop – and rode the charts in over a dozen countries around the world, hitting 1 in more than half of them – “Never Gonna Give You Up” by British hitmaker Rick Astley took on a YouTube life of its own in 2008, when the classic video sparked the ‘Rickrolling’ phenom as a viral Internet meme. To date, according to SurveyUSA, as many as 18 million Americans have been ‘Rickrolled,’ with more than 30 million views registered at YouTube alone.

“Never Gonna Give You Up,” Rick Astley’s debut single as a solo artist, entered the UK chart in August 1987, hit 1, and was followed by “Whenever You Need Some¬body” in October, which went to 3. The album Whenever You Need Somebody easily hit the 1 spot when it was released in November. By the time the third UK single was issued in December (a cover of Doris Day’s “When I Fall In Love” b/w the non-album track “My Arms Keep Missing You”), the U.S. was finally entering the picture.

Rick Astley was a bonafide global superstar by the end of 1988, when his second RCA album was issued in December, the RIAA gold Hold Me In Your Arms (“She Wants To Dance With Me,” “Take Me To Your Heart,” “Don’t Say Goodbye,” “I Don’t Want To Lose Her,” “Giving Up On Love,” “Hold Me In Your Arms”). Among his countless honors was a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist.