July 27, 1987 was a huge day for pop music, the Internet, pranks, and the career of Rick Astley as that was the day "Never Gonna Give You Up" was released.
The song was the first single off Astley's debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody.
The British singer with the soulful baritone and adorable dance moves was just 21 years-old when the song dropped.
The album would take a few months to ascend to #1 in the UK. It took until 1988 for the now-iconic video to find its way on Club MTV and begin its climb to the top of the US charts.
But it would get there, just like it had in a total of 24 countries around the globe.
The first known performance of "Never Gonna Give You Up" in front of an audience was in August, '87 on "Top of the Pops," where he introduced BBC viewers to two songs, the title track of the album and what would eventually become the worldwide phenomenon.
But it was the second life of the infectious tune that has made this lovable hit so unique: the Rickrolling.
Like many sophomoric Internet trends, Rickrolling's roots begin in the nefarious depths of 4chan, with Duckrolling.
But over time, Astley's perfectly harmless video with its stereotypical '80s electric drum intro, became the ideal punchline for jokesters to lead friends to when they clicked a link that said something like "I can't believe that just happened" or "This!"
LOLs were exchanged and now the video surpassed over 1.4 billion views on YouTube.
Over 90 artists have covered the song including the Foo Fighters who have done it 4 times in concert and New Kids on the Block who have performed it 50 times.
Westworld tricked fans into thinking a link would lead to spoilers for Season 2, instead what awaited them was this somber version of the love song.
But maybe the most unexpected version was when members of the Oregon State Legislature - from both sides of the aisle - included bits of the lyrics in their speeches so when spliced together became Astley's trademark tune.
Astley took a break from the industry from 1993-2000 to be a doting father.
Most recently he appeared at Glastonbury where he performed an entire set of Smiths tunes
Earlier in the day he performed his own set, highlighted by a cover he did led behind the drums of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell."
"When I was a kid, my first experience of being in a band was playing the drums, and I've had many dreams in my life and one of my dreams was to perform at Glastonbury and that dream has come true today," Astley shared with the festival goers of Somerset, England.
"To make it even possibly bigger — which I don't know how we possibly could — is for me to play drums to the first record that I learned to play the drums to," he explained, and got to it.
Despite the warm reaction those sets received, Astley, 56, embodying the very nature of Generation X, only has a smattering of shows booked over the next 10 months, though they are to big audiences.
The most notable is probably the two shows he is scheduled for at the Royal Albert Hall in November. Tickets available on his website.
