Singer had huge success with hits like “Never Gonna Give You Up”, but felt he never had the prestige he deserved
Although he found fame early in music — around age 21 —, Rick Astley It wasn’t an easy life in this segment. The singer of “Never Gonna Give You Up” it was the target of criticism and jokes as soon as it broke, in a situation that was taken into the 2000s after the song’s music video became one of the first global memes.
He always took the meme in stride, sometimes even publicly participating in the joke, but the rejection in the 1980s affected him greatly. At the time, one of the biggest criticisms was the fact that his work was conducted by the trio of producers and composers Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Watermanknown as Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW). For many, Astley he was just a “product”, as his work was formatted by much more experienced professionals — and he himself felt that even other musicians wanted to “punch” him in the old days.
In an interview with Justin Hawkins (via Express), Rick recalled that, despite the success, artistic prestige did not come as expected in the 1980s. He highlighted:
“Everyone… I mean, not everyone, but there was a section of people who hated Stock, Aiken Waterman and anyone who left his building — including me. So they might have heard ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, not realizing who produced it, and said, ‘Is this a good pop song? Yes, everything is fine!’ But the moment it becomes talk of Stock, Aiken Waterman, they comment: ‘ah, he’s a puppet, it’s all canned’. It wasn’t cool.”
Animosity was felt whenever Astley I was with other artists. He highlighted:
“Everywhere I went… if the other artists and people around management were extremely pop, I felt good, but if I went to a place where there were ‘musicians,’ I just kept thinking that everyone in the room thought that I was an idiot and they wanted to punch me. I swear to God.”
From underground to mainstream
The feeling of Rick Astley it wasn’t by chance. Before gaining global prominence as a pop singer, the Brit worked for unknown bands, including as a drummer.
“To be honest, it’s painful to go through this. And also… I fall into some weird situations in the sense that when I was young, I played drums in a band for a few years. I became a singer. I composed songs. Then I met Stock, Aiken and Waterman and said, ‘What the hell is that?’. And they said ‘here, we create the songs, you just sit there, right?’.”
Finally, Rick said that he composed four songs for his first album, Whenever You Need Somebody (1987) — something very unusual among artists from SAW. Furthermore, the songs were written by the trio, including the hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”. However, it was precisely the four creations of Astley that impressed the representatives of the RCArecord label with which Pete Waterman I wanted to link it.
“I sang these four songs and Peter Robinson (manager of AIR from the record company) asked: ‘who composed the songs?’. Pete Waterman said: ‘it was Rick, he’s also a great composer.’ So those four songs ended up on the record.”
In all, Rick Astley released nine studio albums. The most recently, Are We There Yet?came out in October 2023 by BMG.
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
