"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, 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.
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. In 2019, Astley recorded and released a new 'Pianoforte' arrangement of the song for his album The Best of Me. In 2023, Billboard magazine ranked "Never Gonna Give You Up" among the 500 best pop songs of all time.
"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.
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."
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. Initial mixing was done by Phil Harding, with the song's distinctive synthetic string and brass lines later added by Fairlight operator Ian Curnow. 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.
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. Since being uploaded to YouTube on 25 October 2009, the video has received over 1.5 billion views and 17 million likes; it surpassed the 1 billion views milestone on 28 July 2021.
On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" reached number one in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart after having been played by resident DJ, Larry Levan, at the Paradise Garage in 1987. The single topped the charts in 25 countries worldwide. The single also reached the number 1 spot on the year-end singles charts in the UK and South Africa.
Assessing the status of the track as producers Stock Aitken Waterman's biggest and most enduring hit, composer Mike Stock confessed he struggled to completely understand why the song had struck such a chord, but suggested its massive success was down to a combination of the song, the singer, and the international clout of record label RCA.
In 2014, Matt Dunn of WhatCulture ranked the song at number one in his "15 unforgettable Stock Aitken Waterman singles" list. Time Out listed "Never Gonna Give You Up" at number 33 in their "The 50 Best '80s Songs" list in 2018, adding, "Those synthesized strings, that thumping boots-and-pants beat, Astley's weirdly robust croon and his romantic-wooing-as-used-car-salesman pitch ('You wouldn't get this from any other guy')… It all adds up to three-and-a-half of the most effervescent minutes in the '80s canon."
The song was reportedly played as part of Operation Nifty Package, a psychological warfare campaign to convince Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to surrender during the United States invasion of Panama in 1989, along with other songs such as the Clash's cover of "I Fought the Law" and "Panama" by Van Halen. In April 2020, The Guardian ranked it at number 44 in their list of "The 100 Greatest UK No 1s".
Classic Pop ranked the song number four in their list of "Top 40 Stock Aitken Waterman Songs" in 2021. The Emmy Award-winning sitcom Ted Lasso featured the song prominently in the season two episode "No Weddings and a Funeral", including a scene where Rebecca Welton (played by Hannah Waddingham) begins to sing it in the middle of her father's funeral. Astley himself commented of the episode, "Waddingham...did an amazing, incredible job. It was so emotional, so moving, so incredible. People have said they even cried (during) the church scene."
In August 2022, the CSAA Insurance Group, an insurer for the American Automobile Association, released a commercial featuring Rick Astley, with scenes recreated from the original "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video. Yung Gravy's 2022 song "Betty (Get Money)" prominently interpolates "Never Gonna Give You Up"'s synthesizer riff and chorus, with Stock Aitken Waterman credited as songwriters. Although Astley agreed to license the music and lyrics, he never authorized Gravy to directly copy his voice. On January 26, 2023, Astley filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court, objecting to Gravy's use of an impersonator to mimic Astley's voice. The case was settled in September 2023. In October 2023, Billboard magazine ranked "Never Gonna Give You Up" number 244 in their list of "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time". In 2023, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian listed the song at number two in his "Stock Aitken Waterman's 20 greatest songs – ranked!", describing it "a brilliantly written song"
Never Gonna Give You Up" is the subject of an Internet meme known as "rickrolling" involving misleading links (commonly shortened URLs) redirecting to the song's music video. Started by users on 4chan, the practice had by May 2007 achieved notoriety on the Internet. It increased in popularity after its use as a 2008 April Fools' Day joke by various media companies and websites—including YouTube, which rickrolled all of its featured videos on that day—allowing people to easily rickroll their friends' devices. "I think it's just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it", Astley told the Los Angeles Times in late March 2008. "That's what's brilliant about the Internet."
Astley appeared in the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, interrupting a song performed by those on a float promoting the Cartoon Network programme Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends with a lipsynched performance of "Never Gonna Give You Up". There were reports that despite the video garnering millions of hits on YouTube, Astley earned almost no money from the online phenomenon, receiving only $12 in royalties from YouTube for his performance share as of August 2010. In 2016, Astley said he never bothered to figure out how much money he earned from YouTube and said that he had also been paid "a chunk of money" by Virgin to appear in a commercial and for his appearance at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.
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