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Rick Astley music biography continued...

at the age of 10 in the local church choir. During his schooldays, Astley formed and played in a number of local bands, the most successful in a soul outfit known as FBI. In 1985, Astley was spotted singing with FBI in a club by Pete Waterman. With his partners Mike Stockman and Matt Aitken, the three producers were just beginning to make a name an unparalleled name for themselves in the British recording industry. After serving an apprenticeship, Astley was ready to record himself and the result was 1987's pop smash, "Never Gonna Give You Up" became an immediate success, spending five weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. The 1987 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". In March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" also topped the U.S. singles chart and was followed by a second U.S. #1 in June with his second U.S. single release, "Together Forever". In 1989 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the Year, though he lost out to Tracy Chapman. Still, in a little over a year, Astley had sold over ten million records and was considered one of the hottest entertainers in pop.



By the end of the 90s, Astley had parted ways with Waterman, Stockman and Aitken, but continued to record and perform moving away from synth pop and into soul music. Though he was never as commercially successful as he had been in the 80s, Astley continued to win fans over with his lush bass-baritone voice. Based on various music charts in the UK, US and Canada, Astley has charted a grand total of 14 different hit singles and 6 different hit albums, as of March 2006. In April 2008, the album "The Ultimate Collection: Rick Astley" was released by Sony BMG and by early May it had reached #17 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart, proving that Astley had lost little of his luster.