Tracklisting
1. Never Gonna Give You Up
2. Together Forever [Lover's Leap 7" Remix]
3. She Wants to Dance With Me [Water Mix]
4. It Would Take a Strong Strong Man
5. Cry for Help
6. Giving Up on Love [7" Pop Version]
7. Hopelessly
8. My Arms Keep Missing You
9. I'll Never Set You Free
10. Just Good Friends
11. I'll Be Fine
12. Some Kinda Love
From the booklet...
Rick Astley looked every bit the mild-mannered Northern boy from Britain. But his redheaded, freckled facade camouflaged a powerful set of soul man pipes - a combination that made Rick the unlikeliest pop star ever to emerge in the image-conscious '80s.
In 1985, Rick was the front man for working-class rock band FBI, when the group's managers arranged for a showcase audition with pop impresario Pete Waterman. Reluctantly summoned to a club in Warrington, a flu-ravaged Waterman sat through sets by a dozen disparate bands, summarily dismissing all contenders - including FBI, who appeared last. Waterman did, however, peg 17-year-old Rick for solo stardom, but the gracious teen opted to stick it out with his mates. Within a year, FBI disbanded, leaving Rick a free agent.
Waterman had formed a successful partnership with writer/musicians Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, and together they'd produced a string of hooky Euro disco hits, including international #1s for Dead Or Alive ("You Spin Me Round") and Bananarama ("Venus"). Rick moved to London and signed with Waterman's company, PWL, as a songwriter and singer, but he also spent a good deal of time in the studio, learning the technical side of recording ... and making tea. As Rick recalled for his first-ever U.K. Greatest Hits collection, he was "making tea and bringing In biscuits for (engineer) Ian Curnow" in late 1986 when he first heard the song which would top the charts in 17 countries and make Rick an overnight sensation. Built on a borrowed bassline from Colonel Abram's then-recent club hit "Trapped," "Never Gonna Give You Up" was reputedly written by Stock/Aitken/Waterman in a matter of minutes. Finished by December, the master sat in the can for months until a studio staffer pulled the tape in the spring of 1987, reminding the PWL powers that-be of the song's undeniable hit potential.
Waterman shopped Rick's tape to RCA U.K. A&R exec Peter Robinson, who liked it, but, as Rick remembers, "looked at me and ... thought there was something dodgy going on. He didn't believe that voice came out of me!" Robinson came around to PWL, where Rick convinced him by singing live in the reception area, "Never Gonna Give You Up" was released in July, shot to #1 for five weeks, and was 1987's biggest-selling single in Britain.
RCA's American offices waited until Rick's debut album was complete before issuing "Never Gonna Give You Up" Stateside in the final weeks of the year. By March 1988, it spent two weeks at the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Its parent album, Whenever You Need Somebody, hit #10, went double-platinum, and spawned a second #1 single with a radically revamped remix of "Together Forever" which featured prominent new brass and backing vocals absent from the comparatively anaemic album version.
To show off Rick's stylistic range, RCA singled out the souped-up pseudo-Stax/Volt exercise "It Would Take A Strong Strong Man," which hit the Pop Top 10 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart. Meanwhile, proactive dance stations kept their listeners happy by programming radio-length edits of the club-friendly 12" (Matt's Jazzy Guitar Mix), or scoring import copies of the non-album U.K. hit "My Arms Keep Missing You."
Not content to rely on his mentors' wares, Rick wrote and co-produced both Top 40 hits from his second album, Hold Me In Your Arms, released In January 1989. 'She Wants To Dance With Me' went to #6 In February, followed by a #38 placing for a new-jack-wing remix of 'Giving Up On Love' that May. Rick had been netting writer's royalties penning B-sides since his first album, including “I'll Never Set You Free”, “Just Good Friends” and “I'll Be Fine.”
With sizable commercial credentials under his belt, Rick cut ties with the PWL camp. His third album, “Free”, boasted a new production partner in Gary Stevenson (Go West, Marilyn Martin). The album's first single, “Cry For Help” - a rousing gospel-infused ballad co-written with Naked Eyes alumnus, Rob Fisher - returned Rick to the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring of 1991. Japanese album buyers were treated to a Free bonus track, 'Some Kinda Love,' riot available Stateside until now.
Stevenson returned to co-produce Rick's fourth and final RCA album, Body And Soul, released in 1993. “Hopelessly” – another Astley/Fisher collaboration - was Rick's last brush with the Pop Top 40. After four albums and a string of hit singles, Rick waked away from the record biz with no regrets. “I'd been so very lucky as It had all come about so easily,” he says. “It's given me the life I can enjoy now.”
Bill Pitzonka
