It's not unheard of for a popular song to achieve success again many years later, as this week's ‘Essential Songs’ segment on The Right Hook shows.
'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'Don't Stop Believing' are just two of many, both catapulted back into the charts after being used on the soundtracks of Wayne's World and The Sopranos respectively.
But no song has had a rebirth that quite compares to Rick Astley's 1987 hit 'Never Gonna Give You Up.' An instant hit upon release, the cheesy love ballad shot to Number 1 in 13 countries, including the US, where it was the year's biggest selling single.
The song is featured in this week’s ‘Essential Songs’ segment on The Right Hook.
A classic example of 80s synth-pop, it eventually faded, as with many others of the era, into obscurity. But two decades later it would return to dominate a very different media scene, this time in the form of the Rick Roll.
The origins of Rickrolling date from 2007, where it became a running joke on the popular image-sharing site 4chan. Using a classic bait-and-switch trick, users were fooled into clicking a link with a fake title which would lead them instead to Astley's video - the quick-fire drum machine intro acting as a catchy but effective punch-line.
By mid-2008, Rickrolling had become a bona-fide internet phenomenon - perhaps the first widely-known internet meme - and began to attract mainstream media attention. As an April Fool's Day prank, YouTube hyperlinked all videos on the front page to Astley's.
Other notable instances of rickrolling include the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, in which Astley himself sang, and at protests outside US branches of the Church of Scientology.
Astley himself was good-humoured about his new-found popularity. Describing the rickrolling of Scientologists as "hilarious," he seemed genuinely happy that the public was enjoying his long-forgotten 1987 hit.
"I think it's just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it... That's what's brilliant about the Internet," Astley told the Los Angeles Times in 2008.
With legions of new young fans, Astley even stormed the online poll for the 'Best Artist Ever' prize at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, beating U2, Green Day, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears in the process.
Despite at total of 39 million views, by 2010 Astley claimed to have received only $12 in royalties from YouTube for the song, for which he received performer's rights.
Every Thursday on The Right Hook, George is joined live in studio by Bill Hughes, who fills in the musical blindspot in the presenter’s cultural awareness with the riffs, refrains, and robust hits have defined musical history. You can listen back to this week's segment below:
