In April 2008 a house music remix of the track was produced by a group of London dance producers working under the pseudonym "The Rickrollerz" on the day of, and in honor of, the London Liverpool Street Station "Rickmob" on 11th April. In 2008, it has been covered by Ashley Tisdale for the Degree Girl website. In 1999, an Italian cover titled "Non ti lascerò" was made by Fiorello. * Eurobeat artist Kevin Johnson also covered the song for the album Super Eurobeat 149. "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, adding: "That's what's brilliant about the Internet." =COVERS= In 1997, the French band 2Be3 covered the song under the name "Toujours là pour toi", which had a great success in France (#4) and Belgium (Wallonia) (#12). In 'a couple of weeks', about 13 million people had been 'rickrolled' into watching Astley's video, the BBC reported on 1 April 2008. By May 2007 the practice had achieved notoriety on the Internet, and it increased in popularity after its use as a 2008 April Fool's Day joke by various media companies and websites, including YouTube rickrolling all of its featured videos on that day and a website allowing people to Rickroll their friends' phones. "Never Gonna Give You Up" is the subject of a popular Internet prank known as "rickrolling" involving misleading links redirecting to the song's music video. The athletic exertion of many of the other dancers also becomes more intense over the course of Astley's performance. A bartender played by Clive Clarke gradually shifts from casually noticing Astley's singing to being fully engrossed in the song with energetic acrobatic moves.
=MUSIC VIDEO= In the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video, directed by Simon West, a smiling Astley sings and dances to the song in various outfits and venues in West London, sometimes accompanied by backup dancers. The music video for the song has become the basis for the "Rickrolling" Internet meme. The song reached number 2 in the United World Chart, knocked-off the top spot by George Michael's "Father Figure". "Never Gonna Give You Up" is listed as the best charting single of the 1980s in Australia, by the Kent Music Report, due to its longevity in the charts.
Soon after, the song was specifically mentioned in The Manual by hit-makers The KLF as a positive example of 'genius' chart pop lyrics. It reached number one in Australia in December 1987. It became number one throughout Europe and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States on March 12, 1988. It was knocked off the UK number-one spot by M/A/R/R/S "Pump Up the Volume" who were sued by Stock Aitken Waterman using a distorted sample from their hit single "Roadblock". The song was a worldwide number-one hit, initially in the singer's native United Kingdom in 1987, where it stayed at number one for five weeks and was the best-selling single of that year. It was released as a single from Astley's multi-million selling debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody, which was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.
"Never Gonna Give You Up" is a pop song originally performed by Rick Astley.