Along with Earth, Wind, & Fire’s classic song “September,” Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” (released in 1987) was one of my favorite songs when I was growing up. Now, check out this “Oral History of Rickrolling” by Brian van Hooker (via Digital Culture), which documents the recent revival of Astley’s classic single. Here is an excerpt:

Paul “Pawl” Fisher, video editor: “When I did that video (see below), I was in college and I was working for the athletic department of Eastern Washington University. That was when Rickrolling was just hitting the Internet …. I controlled all the cameras during the games back then, and I was basically bored at work, so I saw the potential to pull this off. My boss at the time, Davin, he looked like Rick Astley, so we went and got ourselves a trenchcoat and took it from there.”

Davin Perry, Rick Astley impersonator in the EWU video: “It was all Paul’s idea, but I was a pretty good fit to play Rick Astley. At the time, I’d just graduated and was working for the athletic department as my first full-time job, which I eventually thought I might lose because of this whole thing, but Paul asked me to play Astley in the video and I did ….”