Rick Astley re-records ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’— but this time, with the wrong lyrics for a good cause

We've all been rickrolled enough that you'd think we know the lyrics

By Dannielle Beardsley November 4, 2023

Rick Astley performing — Andrew_D_Hurley / Flickr

It used to be you didn’t want to click on an email or link because it was a scammer pretending to be a prince trying to give away their money. Now, you never know if the meme or video you are about to click on is going to be someone trolling you into hearing Rick Astley’s 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up. If you haven’t been Rickrolled yet, tell us your secret. Embracing the iconic nature of the song, Rick Astley re-recorded the jam, but with a twist aimed at bringing awareness to a good cause.

The ultimate Rickroll

There’s nothing better than hearing what someone else thinks the lyrics to a song are and them being completely wrong. From “All the lonely Starbucks lovers” instead of the correct “Got a long list of ex-lovers” in Taylor Swift’s popular bop Blank Space to “Sweet dreams are made of cheese” for the actual lyric “Sweet dreams are made of these” in the song Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics, we love it all.

Rick Astley is taking misheard lyrics to his song Never Gonna Give You Up and creating a new way to get Rickrolled. The singer is taking all of those perfectly misheard words and rereleasing the song with them. He’s not just doing this to keep us trolling each other for eternity with his music, but also to bring our attention to hearing loss, which Astley himself has.

With one in six music lovers saying they mishear the words in their favorite songs because of hearing issues, the icon is hoping to get the conversation going about getting your hearing checked.

Never Gonna Give You Up - The Misheard Version | Specsavers UK & ROI

Some changed lyrics

Instead of “desert you,” you’ll find “dessert spoons.”
Forget “your heart’s been aching” because now it’s “your aunt’s been naked.”
You won’t find “a full commitment’s what I’m thinking of,” but you will hear “a broken mitten’s what I’m thinking of.”

Rick collaborated with Specsavers for the new version, and the video highlights all the changed lyrics so you can play along. Specsavers did research in the UK about hearing loss and misheard songs, and Never Gonna Give You Up lyrics landed in the top ten songs the nation does not hear properly.

Get your hearing tested if you thought any of those lyrics were correct

While it’s funny to find out what lyrics people misunderstand if hearing loss is the reason behind it — and not because the artist mumbles the words along — then shining light on the topic is a great thing. Hopefully, this will motivate the one in three people who have noticed a change in their hearing over the last decade to get their ears checked out. If you thought the wrong lyrics were right this whole time, you should make an appointment to get your hearing checked.

Getting Rickrolled by your friend, family member, or coworker is a right of passage, but asking someone to repeat themselves a dozen times because you can’t hear what they are saying isn’t as fun. With the release of this updated version, we are sure there will be a new wave of Rickroll trolling bound to happen, but we also hope there will be a bump in appointments made to see an audiologist.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Trending

Dannielle Beardsley

Contributor

Dannielle has written for various websites, online magazines, and blogs. She loves everything celebrity and her favorite…

Culture

Study suggests you’ll give up on your New Year’s resolution before February

Why New Year goals are hard to keep and how to make 2023 the year you defy the odds

a man pressing the snooze button

Hope springs eternal when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s. A fresh year means new goals and a resolution to improve. Perhaps this is the year your pandemic Peloton will become more than a coat rack, or you’re finally going to remember to bring coupons to the grocery store so you can save more.

New Year’s Day also marks the end of the holiday season. However, we have one more reason to say Bah-Humbug before you kick your tree to the curb: That New Year resolution you’ve made? You’re probably going to break it by February.

Culture

You’re not imagining it: Winter weather is getting worse

Climate change is bringing in rougher winter weather

A 2016 blizzard in the United States.

Old news that is more relevant every day: Planet Earth continues its substantial warming, threatening and affecting life, liberty, and property with every new climate disaster.

The most recent example? Nearly 30 people died in Buffalo's most recent winter storm, per CNN, as the area was hit with more than 50 inches of snow. This follow's last month's winter storm, which dumped the fifth-highest amount of snow the region has ever experienced in a three-day period. More than 80 inches of snow stuck on the ground a full month before the official beginning of winter (per Fox Weather). Of the four Buffalo winter snowstorms preceded by last month’s dump, three of them occurred in the last 27 years — and Buffalo is far from unique among the world's cities experiencing record snowstorm weather events. (Just look at the most recent weather forecasts across the country.)

Culture

The best poetry books: You owe it to yourself to read these

Haven't read poetry since high school? These are the best poetry books to get your mind back in the mood

Man reading a book.

If you're like most people these days, if asked what the best poetry books are out there right now, or were asked for a recommendation, you'd have absolutely no clue what to say. But you used to. Think about it. "What do we read to our children every night?" asked Derek Sheffield, Poetry Editor of Terrain.org (and author of the collection of poetry
Not for Luck
). Right. Nursery rhymes. Which is just another name for poetry for kids.

And maybe you don't think of poetry as important in our era, given the news cycle blur, social platforms aplenty, our personal daily grinds, and the explosion of media of all types. But how do humans mark our major moments? "We still turn to poetry at the moments of greatest personal and cultural significance," said Sheffield. We rely on carefully crafted words to make sense of life.