The Best of Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up

From the booklet
For better or worse, the names of Rick Astley and Stock, Aitken & Waterman seem destined to be irrevocably intertwined in pop’s rich historical tapestry. It’s a partnership with beginnings way back in the mid-80′s when a pre-Pop Idol Pete Waterman was invited to witness a gig by a band called FBI. By all accounts he was particularly taken by the singer, a painfully fresh faced lad who’d started out singing in his local church choir. Within a year, Rick Astley was ensconced in PWL studios in London, nerve centre of sanitised, Stock, Aitken & Waterman sponsored teeny pop.
In the late summer of 1987, that fresh face – belied by the sonorous timbre of the voice – made its debut appearance on Channel 4′s Chart Show. A Friday night video extravaganza in the days when videos were still a creative art form, the show no doubt offered up many people’s first glimpse of the new, clean cut pop star on the block. Flame haired and dapper in his dark suit, Astley cut a memorable figure. ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, he crooned convincingly over SAW’s chugging bass, programmed drums and shiny, happy synths. A sizeable section of Britain’s female population presumably took it personally and sent the single to No.1. Not only did it stay there for over a month, it went on to become Britain’s biggest selling single of 1987.
Whenever You Need Somebody was a variation on the same theme, taking Rick to the top of charts around the globe before the year was out. Come Christmas, the rising star obliged, Cliff Richard-like, with the season’s sentimental greetings in the form of Nat King Cole’s When I Fall In Love. Together Forever, as saccharine a confection as SAW ever concocted, was the fourth and final single to be lifted from Rick’s multi-million selling debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody. To their credit, Waterman and co. at least gave a passing nod to Astley’s true calling as a white soul boy in the shape of The Love Has Gone. They also made room for a clutch of Rick’s own compositions, among which the jazzy, Hue & Cry-esque Slipping Away showed most promise.
It was a promise which, if not flowering completely, was given considerably more leeway on follow-up album, Hold Me In Your Arms. More than half of the songs were penned by Rick, including the hit title track and the peppy Giving Up on Love. Alongside the requisite mood shots, the sleeve featured a tongue in cheek snap of Rick licking a guitar neck, its humour perhaps concealing a more serious comment on Astley’s position in the Stock, Aitken & Waterman machine. Like Kylie Minogue, Astley was more than just another radio friendly unit shifter on the SAW conveyor belt. He was never going to be a Gene Simmons but neither presumably, did he want to be a modern day Pat Boone. With the press beginning to harangue him, Rick decided the time was right to strike out on his own.
By signing to RCA as a solo artist in his own right, Astley was afforded the artistic freedom he craved. Although he’d enlisted Level 42′s Mark King and Climie Fisher’s Rob Fisher as co-writers, the title of 1991′s Free album suggested that the singer was finally in charge of his own musical destiny. With the Cry For Help single becoming Rick’s eighth consecutive Top 10 UK hit (a feat that earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of Records), his creative re-birth couldn’t have got off to a better start. The single also served notice that Astley had fully matured into an MOR soul don, leaving the tacky dance-pop arrangements far behind him.
Coffee table-friendly, adult contemporary ballads such as Wonderful You and Behind The Smile were also now part of Astley’s oeuvre, embellished by the piano of Elton John and the string arrangements of Anne Dudley (Art of Noise).
Such esteemed musical company was perhaps an indicator of the respect afforded Astley in his graduation from pop debutante to elder statesman. Yet no sooner had he reached these heady heights than he decided to move on once more, this time to the quiet life of a family man. Following 1993′s Body & Soul album, from which the single Hopelessly was lifted, Astley retired from active musical service. While a mooted late 90′s reunion with Waterman never came to pass, A stley, in many people’s minds, will always be linked to those late 80′s days when SAW were the new Motown. Together Forever you could say.