Everything about Rick Astley totally explained
Richard Paul Astley, (born
6 February 1966) is an
English singer,
songwriter, and
musician. He was born in
Newton-le-Willows,
Lancashire,
England. Astley has also lived in
Richmond, in
Surrey with his
Danish girlfriend,
Lene Bausager, and their daughter, Emilie.
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
Mike Stock,
Matt Aitken and
Pete Waterman known as
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, 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 wasn't "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
Mike Astley helped to refute this assertion.
His first
single was the little-known "
When You Gonna" released as 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.
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 US.
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 39.9 million.
His next album
Body and Soul was released in 1993. The album didn't chart in the UK and managed to make the
Billboard 200 peaking at #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 March 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 singer
Russell Watson, who eventually won the competition. The BBC failed to explain that Astley's withdrawal was due to his girlfriend
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,
US, and
Canada, Astley has charted a grand total of 14 (different) hit singles and 6 (different) hit albums as of March 2006. In April of 2008, the album "The Ultimate Collection: Rick Astley" was released by Sony BMG, and by early May, it had reached #17 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart.
Rickroll internet phenomenon
In 2007 Rick Astley became the subject of a viral
Internet meme in which an estimated 25 million Internet users were tricked into watching the video for Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" by posting it under the name of other popular video titles. The practice is now known as
Rickrolling. The phenomenon became so popular that on
April 1, 2008,
YouTube pranked the Internet community by making every single video link on the front page a Rickroll.
Discography
Canada Top data: for singles and albums from The Record magazine. US 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
1991 Free (#17 Canada, #9 UK, #31 U.S.)
1993 Body & Soul (#185 U.S.)
2001 Keep It Turned On
2004 Portrait (#26 UK)
Singles
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
2008 The Ultimate Collection (#17 UK)Further Information
Get more info on 'Rick Astley'.
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