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Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” Passes 1 Billion Spotify Streams

He can probably thank the Rickrolling phenomenon for this one.

“I never could have imagined back in 1987 that ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ would still be going strong decades later,” Astley said in a statement. A brief explainer, if you have somehow managed to avoid this until now: Rickrolling is a joke played online on unsuspecting folks who click on a hyperlink about anything unrelated to Astley only to be taken to the music video for the song. Astley had a string of other hits in the late ’80s, including “Together Forever,” “It Would Take a Strong Strong Man” and “She Wants to Dance With Me.” He retired from the music business in 1993 to spend time with family but mounted a comeback in 2016 with the album 50, which hit No.

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