Rick Astley Laughed All the Way to the Bank With This Viral Internet Prank That Used His 1987 Hit Song

In 1987, Rick Astley had a massive hit with “Never Gonna Give You Up“. The debut single from his freshman Whenever You Need Somebody album, the song is written by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman.

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A multi-platinum, two-week No. 1 single, “Never Gonna Give You Up” is the beginning of a career for Astley that lasted several years, with his last Top 10 hit, “Hopelessly”, out in 1993. But little did Astley know, his first hit single would have a massive resurgence two decades later. It gave new life to a song that could have otherwise been forgotten.

In 2007, a viral trend of getting Rickrolled began, with numerous websites using links that ultimately led to Astley’s video of “Never Gonna Give You Up”. While it might seem that it was making a mockery of the song, Astley is grateful for the song’s increase in popularity.

“It’s a bit strange to have videos of when you were a young guy out on the internet,” Astley admits. “It makes me laugh—I’m sure it annoys a lot of other people. It’s a bit spooky. It’s just one of those odd things when something gets picked up, and people run with it. That’s what’s brilliant about the internet.”

What Rick Astley Says About Life After “Never Gonna Give You Up”

Being part of a viral trend gave Astley’s career a big boost, including an invitation for Astley to be part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2008. But for Astley, he had already capitalized on the song’s success the first time around, making its second chapter merely a happy bonus.

“I didn’t leave my career penniless and kind of crazy, on the verge of insanity. Which is how an awful lot of people tend to end up in pop music,” Astley explains. “I got away with it, really. I ended up making what I considered to be real money, keeping hold of most of it, and having a very comfortable, relatively sane, great life since. That’s not a normal story for people who got into pop music the way I did.”

Astley wrote four of the songs on Whenever You Need Somebody. Although he didn’t write “Never Gonna Give You Up”, it resonated deeply with him anyway.

“If you don’t write the song and you haven’t produced it, it’s [still] your song. But it takes a bit of time to bed in and for it to really become your song,” Astley says. “Even some of the greats, Whitney Houston, or even going back to Frank Sinatra, they didn’t write and produce the music. So, when I sing ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ now, that’s my song. I don’t care who wrote it, I don’t care who produced it, it’s my song.”

In 2022, Astley released a remastered version of Whenever You Need Somebody.

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