Rick Astley
Background information
Birth name	Richard Paul Astley
Born	February 06, 1966 (1966-02-06) (age 41)
Origin	Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire, England
Genre(s)	Pop, dance, R&B
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1987–present

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

Contents 1 Career 2 The Rickroll 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Singles 3.3 Compilations 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Career

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In 1985, Astley was playing the club circuit as a singer 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 himwith 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. His brother Mark Astley helped to refute this assertion.

His first single was the little-known "When You Gonna" credited to Rick & Lisa, but his first solo outing was "Never Gonna Give You Up," released in 1987. It became an immediate success, spending 5 weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. It was the first of no fewer than 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."

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 Andraé Crouch, who'd also been involved with Madonna's 1989 hit "Like A Prayer."

His next album Body & Soul was released in 1993. The album did not chart in the U.K. 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.

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 reached 40 million.

Almost 10 years after "Body & 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", "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.

The Rickroll

In 2007, an internet phenomenon known as "Rickrolling" began to spread rapidly. Its origins can be traced to 4chan, where there existed previously a fad called "duckrolling": claiming a link has something interesting or amusing in its target thread (on 4chan) but which turns out to be a thread with an initial "duckroll" image; thus, the user has been duped, or "duckrolled", much like a snipe hunt on the Internet. "Rickrolling" consists of the same thing, but routed to Astley's video of "Never Gonna Give You Up". Notable examples of this meme entering the mainstream are Carson Daly's attempt to Rickroll his audience [1] and a performance of the song in the Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires." One hyperlink frequently used is a classic MTV version of "Never Gonna Give You Up" posted on YouTube on November 27, 2006. As of August 6, 2007, the YouTube video had been viewed nearly 2 million times.

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

• 1987 Whenever You Need Somebody (#2 Canada, #1 UK, #10 U.S. 1988, #1 Australia)
• 1988 Hold Me in Your Arms (#3 Canada, #8 UK, #19 U.S. 1989)
• 1991 Free (#17 Canada, #9 UK, #31 U.S.)
• 1993 Body & Soul (#185 U.S.)
• 2001 Keep It Turned On
• 2005 Portrait (#26 UK)

Singles

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

Compilations

• 2001 Together Forever - Greatest Hits and More...
• 2002 Greatest Hits
• 2003 The Best of Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
• 2004 Love Songs
• 2004 Platinum & Gold Collection

See also

• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart

References

1. Manchester UK, Manchester Popular & Rock Music (11 of 11). Retrieved on 2007-07-01
2. Williams, Andy, You've been tRicked. Retrieved on 2007-07-01

External links

• Official Website