Rick Astley’s ‘By no means Gonna Give You Up’ reaches one billion YouTube views
Rick Astley‘s ‘By no means Gonna Give You Up’ has secured one billion views on YouTube after cementing its place in web folklore.
Astley’s debut tune, which spawned the long-lasting Rickrolling development, is one in every of a handful of hits to succeed in the spectacular milestone on the positioning – becoming a member of the likes of A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me’, Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
“I’m sort of an enormous deal,” mentioned Astley of the achievement.
To mark the milestone, he has additionally introduced plans to launch a brand new ‘By no means Gonna Give You Up’ restricted version signed, numbered and colored 7” vinyl single.
Out there to pre-order here, the 7” is backed with the Pianoforte model of the tune, which initially featured on his 2019 compilation ‘The Better of Me’.
Additional viral fame beckoned for Astley earlier this 12 months when he shared footage of himself rocking out to tracks by The Strokes and Slipknot, whereas additionally posting a canopy of R.E.M.
The ’80s icon uploaded the trio of movies to his official TikTok channel, the place he’s racked up 1.9 million followers because it was launched final 12 months.
In a single clip Astley pretends to shred his guitar via Slipknot’s 2004 single ‘Duality’, which seems on the metallic band’s third album ‘Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)’. Performing in entrance of a pretend desert backdrop, the singer dons a trench coat and black shades.
Final 12 months, Astley additionally provided up a rendition of Foo Fighters’ basic 1997 single ‘Everlong’. The singer struck up an unlikely friendship with frontman Dave Grohl again in 2018 when he was invited to hitch the Foos on stage at Japan’s Summer season Sonic pageant.
Since then, the pair have reunited on a number of events – together with at Studying Competition 2019 and through a shock efficiency from Grohl at Membership NME that very same month. At one level within the Foos’ bill-topping Studying set, Grohl mentioned Astley had “balls the dimensions of the fucking London Eye”.