Never Gonna Give You Up

"Never Gonna Give You Up"
Song

"Never Gonna Give You Up" is a pop-dance song originally performed by Rick Astley. It is from Astley's multi-million selling debut album Whenever You Need Somebody, which was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. It was a worldwide number one hit, initially in the singer's native United Kingdom in 1987, where it stayed at number one for five weeks and was the best selling single that year.

It became number one throughout Europe and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States on March 12 1988. It reached number one in Australia in December 1987.

Music video

In the music video, Astley sings and dances to the song in various venues, sometimes interlaced with backup dancers. A bartender has a notable presence in the video, as his behavior gradually shifts from casually noticing Astley's singing to being fully engrossed in the song with energetic acrobatic moves. Venues range from a restaurant to several outdoor areas. Apparently the backup dancer to Astley's right in the bar did not know the moves to the song and lagged several seconds behind the other dancer, subsequently the director attempted to keep her out of the frame.

Internet phenomenon

The song became the basis for an Internet phenomenon known as "Rick Rolling", where a YouTube link to the video is disguised as a link to something else, usually something the "victim" being Rickrolled would find interesting, in order to deceive the user to click the link. Once the video has begun, the "rules" stipulate that it must be watched to the end. As a result, two videos have received over 8.5 million collective hits as of January 7, 2008.

Charts

Chart (1987/1988)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary	1
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play	1
German Singles Chart	2
Norwegian Singles Chart	1
Official UK Singles Chart	1
Spain Singles Chart	1
Switzerland Singles Chart	2