In 1985, Astley was playing the club circuit as a singer with a
soul band named FBI, when he was seen by the
record producer Pete Waterman and persuaded to come to
London to work at the
PWL recording studio. Under the tutelage of production trio
Stock Aitken Waterman, Astley was taught about the
recording process and groomed for his future career, supposedly starting off as the
recording studio 'tea boy'. During much of his career prior to the proliferation of
music videos, many listeners assumed he was
black. In one instance, the comedic entertainer, Sinbad, discussed him with a talk-show host, expressing his surprise that Astley was not "one of the brothers." Even after his visual appearance, it was still popular belief that he was
miming for a
black American singer. His brother Mark Astley helped to refute this assertion.
His first
single was the little-known "When You Gonna" credited to Rick & Lisa, but his first solo outing was "
Never Gonna Give You Up," released in
1987. It became an immediate success, spending five weeks at the top of the
British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. It was the first of no fewer than 13 (world-wide) Top 30
hit singles for him.
The album
Whenever You Need Somebody also reached
Number One in the UK, and the hit singles continued, including the title track and a cover of
Nat King Cole's "
When I Fall In Love."
On 12 March
1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" had also topped the
U.S. singles chart and was followed by a second U.S. #1 on 18 June with his second U.S. single release "
Together Forever."
By the end of the decade, Astley had parted company with Stock Aitken Waterman. He achieved one more major success with the
1991 ballad "
Cry For Help," which reached the
Top 10 in both the UK and the U.S. It featured a
gospel choir arranged by
Andraé Crouch, who'd also been involved with
Madonna's 1989 hit "
Like A Prayer."
His next album
Body & Soul was released in 1993. The album did not chart in the U.K. and managed to make
The Billboard 200 peaking at a lowly #182. The two singles,
The Ones You Love and
Hopelessly performed very well on the adult contemporary chart, peaking at #19 and #4 respectively.
Hopelessly also crossed over and peaked at #31 on the
Top 40 Mainstream chart.
For much of the
1990s and early
2000s, Astley remained largely out of the spotlight.
In 1991 the
RIAA certified that two million copies of
Whenever You Need Somebody had been sold. Total world sales of Astley's records (inclusive of singles, albums and compilation inclusions) have reached 40 million.
Almost 10 years after "Body & Soul", Rick finally returned to the music world and released "Keep It Turned On" in 2002. The album featured the single "Sleeping", which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from U.S. house producer Todd Terry.
In 2005 Astley released the album
Portrait in which he
covered many classic
soul standards such as "
Vincent", "
Nature Boy" and "
Close To You".
In early 2006, Astley withdrew unexpectedly at the eleventh hour from appearing on the
BBC TV celebrity/pro duets show
Just the Two of Us after committing to the series. This led to criticism from those in the entertainment industry and media. His place was filled by
opera singer
Russell Watson, who eventually won the competition. The BBC failed to explain that Astley's withdrawal was due to his partner
Lene Bausager being nominated for the 2006
Academy Award for
Best Live Action Short Film for her produced/directed film "
Cashback". Astley would have missed a crucial part of the show by attending the awards ceremony and so withdrew before the show started its run.
Based on various music charts in the
UK, U.S. and
Canada, Astley has charted a grand total of 14 (different) hit singles and 6 (different) hit albums as of March 2006.
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