Barry Manilow Gets Rickrolled!
It all
started with this year's "Rickrolling" prank craze (the act of
surprising web surfers with a video of carrot-topper crooner Rick Astley).
Suddenly, the long-forgotten carrot-topped
crooner of the late '80s was a massive new-millennial sensation. He beat out
the likes of U2 and Green Day to win the "Best Act Ever" award at the
2008 MTV Europe Awards; "Never Gonna Give You Up" became a hit
ringtone; and it all culminated in Rick Astley's comeback performance on live
television this past Thanksgiving morning, when millions of unsuspecting
Americans watched Rick himself bumrush the Cartoon Network's Macy's Parade
float and start singing his viral hit accompanied by a cast of Rickrolled
puppets.
In the
meantime, another equally so-geek-he's-chic easy-listening icon, Barry Manilow,
was slowly but surely experiencing his own resurgence. He mentored the American Idol contestants; he famously battled
with conservative View co-hostess Elisabeth
Hasselbeck; he made cameos on The
Colbert Report and Family Guy; he
scored a number-one album with his collection of '50s covers; and his music was
even used as punishment for criminals, proving Barry's one tough cookie.
So now it's all come together. For his new album--a collection of '80s cover songs this time--Barry Manilow has willingly Rickrolled himself, recording his own showtune-ish version of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." And frankly, we're never gonna give either of these guys up. We'd call this squareness squared to the Nth degree, but really, a more fitting equation would be ASTLEY + MANILOW = AWESOME.
Compare Barry and Rick's versions below, and get ready for the new "Barryrolling" phenomenon to sweep the interweb...
