Which song is famously associated with the Rickroll meme?

The song famously associated with the Rickroll meme is Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Released on July 27, 1987, the song was written and produced by the British songwriting team Stock Aitken Waterman and recorded for Astley’s debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody. It became a major international hit, reaching number one in the United Kingdom for five weeks and topping charts in numerous other countries. Its polished dance-pop production and Astley’s unusually deep singing voice made it distinctive long before the meme existed.

Rickrolling appeared in 2007 as a bait-and-switch prank. A disguised hyperlink promised one thing but redirected the visitor to the song’s music video. The joke developed on 4chan and grew out of an earlier “duckrolling” prank. YouTube’s April Fools’ Day stunt in 2008 helped push it into mainstream culture.

The meme is sometimes confused with Astley’s other songs, especially “Together Forever.” That track was also a hit, but it is not the song used in the canonical Rickroll. The famous video identifier is dQw4w9WgXcQ.