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Rick Astley

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For other uses, see Rick Astley (disambiguation).
Rick Astley

Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was born in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire, England. Astley previously resided in Richmond in Surrey with his Danish girlfriend, Lene Bausager, and their daughter, Emilie.[1]

Career

In 1985, Astley was playing the club circuit as a drummer with a soul band named FBI, when he was seen by the record producer Pete Waterman and persuaded to come to London to work at the PWL recording studio. Under the tutelage of production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, Astley was taught about the recording process and groomed for his future career, supposedly starting off as the recording studio 'tea boy'. During much of his career prior to the proliferation of music videos, many listeners assumed he was black. In one instance, the comedic entertainer, Sinbad, discussed him with a talk-show host, expressing his surprise that Astley was not "one of the brothers." Even after his visual appearance, it was still popular belief that he was miming for a black American singer.[2] His brother Mike Astley helped to refute this assertion.

His first single was the little-known "When You Gonna" released: a collaboration with Lisa Carter, but his first solo outing was "Never Gonna Give You Up," released in 1987. It became an immediate success, spending five weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. It was the first of 13 (world-wide) Top 30 hit singles for him.

The album Whenever You Need Somebody also reached Number One in the UK, and the hit singles continued, including the title track and a cover of Nat King Cole's "When I Fall in Love."

On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" had also topped the U.S. singles chart and was followed by a second U.S. #1 on 18 June with his second U.S. single release "Together Forever." In 1989, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the Year. He lost to Tracy Chapman.

File:FBI with Astley.jpg
The group FBI, from left to right, Kevin Needham, Rick Astley, Will Hopper, Peter Dale & Greg Smee, in 1984.

By the end of the decade, Astley had parted company with Stock Aitken Waterman. He achieved one more major success with the 1991 ballad "Cry for Help," which reached the Top 10 in both the UK and the U.S. It featured a gospel choir arranged by Andrae Crouch, who'd also been involved with Madonna's 1989 hit "Like a Prayer."

In 1991 the RIAA certified that two million copies of Whenever You Need Somebody had been sold. Total world sales of Astley's records (inclusive of singles, albums and compilation inclusions) have since reached 40 million.

His next album Body and Soul was released in 1993. The album did not chart in the UK and managed to make the Billboard 200 peaking at a lowly #182. The two singles, The Ones You Love and Hopelessly performed very well on the adult contemporary chart, peaking at #19 and #4 respectively. Hopelessly also crossed over and peaked at #31 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart.

For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Astley remained largely out of the spotlight.

Almost 10 years after Body and Soul, Rick finally returned to the music world and released "Keep It Turned On" in 2002. The album featured the single "Sleeping", which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from U.S. house producer Todd Terry.

In 2005 Astley released the album Portrait in which he covered many classic soul standards such as "Vincent"[3], "Nature Boy" and "Close to You."

In early 2006, Astley withdrew unexpectedly at the eleventh hour from appearing on the BBC TV celebrity/pro duets show Just the Two of Us after committing to the series. This led to criticism from those in the entertainment industry and media. His place was filled by opera singer Russell Watson, who eventually won the competition. The BBC failed to explain that Astley's withdrawal was due to his partner Lene Bausager being nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for her produced/directed film "Cashback." Astley would have missed a crucial part of the show by attending the awards ceremony and so withdrew before the show started its run.

Based on various music charts in the UK, U.S. and Canada, Astley has charted a grand total of 14 (different) hit singles and 6 (different) hit albums as of March 2006.

"Rickroll" Internet phenomenon

Further information: Never Gonna Give You Up

The song, "Never Gonna Give You Up," features a campy music video which became the basis for an Internet phenomenon known as "rickrolling". It took its name from an earlier phenomenon known as "duckrolling", in which someone would post a blind link to a page allegedly relevant to a discussion that upon viewing would prove to be a non sequitur - specifically, an image of a duck on wheels, "Duckrolling" the viewer. Rickrolling follows from this concept, with the link directed at the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video. It also has several other names such as Rick Rolled or tRicked. This phenomenon grew, eventually becoming widespread enough to attract some coverage in the mainstream media.[4][5][6] As a result of the phenomenon, the four most-viewed copies of the music video on YouTube have received over 14.5 million hits as of March 27, 2008.[7][8][9][10].

Astley has described this resurgence of his hit as "bizarre and funny" but admits, “If I was a young kid now looking at that song, I’d have to say I’d think it was pretty naff, really.”[11]

Discography

Main article: Rick Astley discography

Canada Top data: for singles and albums from The Record magazine. U.S. Top data: for singles from The Billboard Hot 100, for albums from The Billboard 200; UK Top data for singles and albums is from UK Singles Chart.

Albums

Singles

Year Song UK singles U.S. Hot 100 U.S. Dance U.S. A.C. Canada singles Album
1987 "Never Gonna Give You Up" 1 1 1 1 1 Whenever You Need Somebody
"Whenever You Need Somebody" 3 - - - -
"When I Fall In Love"/"My Arms Keep Missing You" 2 - - - -
1988 "Together Forever" 1 1 1 2 2
"It Would Take a Strong Strong Man" - 10 8 1 2
"She Wants to Dance with Me" 6 6 13 5 1 Hold Me in Your Arms
"Take Me To Your Heart" 8 - - - -
1989 "Hold Me in Your Arms" 10 - - - -
"Giving Up on Love" - 38 - 11 29
"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" - 89 - 16 -
1991 "Cry for Help" 7 7 - 1 3 Free
"Move Right Out" 58 81 - - -
"Never Knew Love" 70 - - - -
1993 "The Ones You Love" 48 - - 19 - Body and Soul
"Hopelessly" 33 28 - 4 23
2001 "Sleeping" - - - 17 - Keep It Turned On

Compilations

See also

References

  1. ^ Moss, John. "Manchester Popular & Rock Music (11 of 11)". Manchester UK. Retrieved 2007-07-01.
  2. ^ "Rick Astley". ShakeTheTV.com.
  3. ^ Astley, Rick. "Vincent (Live)" (video). YouTube.
  4. ^ New York Times. Tay Zonday attracted a lot of online attention when his "Never Gonna Give You Up" cover was used as a Rickroll (or "Tayroll"). The ’80s Video That Pops Up, Online and Off. Retrieved on March 25, 2008.
  5. ^ MyFoxLA.com. Video Quickies: Rickrolled. Retrieved on January 31, 2008.
  6. ^ Andy Williams (June 15). "You've been tRicked". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ YouTube - Rick Roll
  8. ^ YouTube - RickRoll'D
  9. ^ YouTube - Rick Roll
  10. ^ YouTube - Rickrolled
  11. ^ "Web Scout exclusive! Rick Astley, king of the 'Rickroll,' talks about his song's second coming". March 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
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