Rick Astley’s hit “Never Gonna Give You Up” is in the news — and not because of another case of Rickrolling.
Over 30 years after its release, the track just joined Spotify’s Billions Club, meaning it’s been streamed over 1 billion times on the service.
“I never could have imagined back in 1987 that ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ would still be going strong decades later,” Astley shares. “Thanks to streaming platforms, a whole new generation has been able to discover music like mine. Reaching one billion streams is something I never dreamed of and to everyone who’s ever listened, thank you.”
“Never Gonna Give You Up” was the first single off Astley’s debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody. It spent two weeks at #1 in the U.S. and also topped the chart in over 20 countries. It returned to the spotlight in the 2000s, thanks to the internet phenomenon of Rickrolling, in which folks sent misleading links that redirected people to the song’s music video.
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