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.

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Dannielle Beardsley

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

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