English singer/songwriter and radio personality Rick Astley was born 58 years ago as Richard Paul Astley in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, is married and has a daughter.
At the age of 10, Rick began to sing in the choir of his local church, and that’s were he started showing interest in music. In later years whilst still at school, he created some local bands and played drums with them. He left school when he was 16 and then worked in his dad’s business as a driver and also performed with several groups as a drummer in various private local clubs.
In 1985, Rick was the drummer of a soul band named ‘FBI’ and it happened that two of its members left, so he suggested to become its lead singer and his offer was accepted. Subsequently, he was noticed by a record producer who convinced him to record songs at his studio. As a matter of fact, he recorded a track named ‘When you Gonna’ sung in duet with Lisa Fabien which made it to the Top 20 in a couple of countries in May 1987.
Three months later, Astley’s debut single ‘Never Gonna Give you Up’ was released, and was an instant worldwide hit, topping the charts in numerous countries around the globe. It spent 5 weeks at the top of the British charts and was also that year’s highest-selling single.
Two months after, another successful single was released, called ‘Whenever you need Somebody’, followed by Rick’s debut album which topped the UK and Australian Albums charts and certified 6 times platinum as well, plus selling 15.2 million copies globally.
For the rest of the 80s, Astley release a second album and several popular songs like ‘When I fall in Love (my arms keep missing you)’, ‘Together Forever’, ‘It would take a strong strong Man’, ‘She wants to dance with Me’, ‘Take me to your Heart’ and ‘Hold me in your Arms’, which were all Top 10 UK hits. He also embarked on his first world tour in December 1989.
At the beginning of the next decade, Rick decided to change image as well as music genre from dance-pop to soul/adult contemporary. Until 1993, he released 2 albums and had a hit single called ‘Cry for Help’. In view that this material did not provide the expected success, Astley decided to take a break to focus on his family. After a 7-year hiatus, he returned to the music scene in the year 2000.
Since then, 5 studio albums and 18 singles were released. In 1988, Rick won the Brit Award for Best British Single with the track ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’.
*Image: no infringement intended. Source: biographyline.com