A number one song with quite a legacy

"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley was number one on the Billboard pop chart 30 years ago. Over the years, the song has been subjected to a fair amount of ridicule.

About ten years ago, Internet pranksters started changing completely unrelated links so they took you to the video for this song. It became an online phenomenon known as "rick-rolling." In 2008 the BBC reported that 13 million people had been tricked into watching the video.

Nick Lowe made a pointed attack on the song's lyrics in his composition "All Men Are Liars."

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