Return To Singing
Almost 10 years after Body and Soul, Astley finally returned to the music world, signing a co-publishing deal with Polydor and releasing Keep It Turned On in 2002. The album featured the single "Sleeping", which became a minor club hit, thanks to a set of remixes from U.S. house producer Todd Terry. Keep It Turned On was only released in Continental Europe.
Astley's first compilation album, Greatest Hits, was released in 2002, and reached #16 on the UK Albums Chart. With no promotion from Astley, it sold over 100,000 copies and was certified Gold by the BPI. After retirement in 1993, Astley continued to write songs for various acts and in 2003 he managed to chart at #10 in the UK as a songwriter with "Shakespeare's (Way With) Words" performed by short-lived boy band One True Voice.
In 2004, Astley toured for the first time in 14 years, which led him to a record contract with Sony BMG. In March 2005, Astley released the album Portrait in which he covered many classic standards such as "Vincent", "Nature Boy" and "Close to You". Both Astley and Sony BMG were unhappy with the end result so the album was poorly promoted, yet managed to reach #26 on the UK Albums Chart.
In April 2008, the album "The Ultimate Collection: Rick Astley" was released by Sony BMG and by early May it had reached #17 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart, again with no promotion from Astley.
In September 2008, Rick was nominated for the 'Best Act Ever' award at the MTV Europe Music Awards The push to make Astley the winner of the award continued after the announcement, as well as efforts to encourage MTV to personally invite Astley to the awards ceremony. On 7 November, following a massive internet campaign by fans, Rick won the award in Liverpool, but was not there in person to receive it. Perez Hilton collected the prize on his behalf. On the back of this, "Never Gonna Give You Up" returned to the UK charts, over 21 years after it was released, peaking at #73 during the Christmas period.
During the late 2000s, Astley continued touring across the globe, touring with various other '80s acts, such as Boy George and Belinda Carlisle, in the Here and Now Tour. In April 2009, he wrote an article for Time about moot.
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Famous quotes containing the words return to, return and/or singing:
“... one cannot be happy in exile or in oblivion. One cannot always be a stranger. I want to return to my homeland, make all my loved ones happy. I see no further than this.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“A tree may grow a thousand feet tall, but its leaves will return to its roots.”
—Chinese proverb.
“I want mother’s milk,
that good sour soup.
I want breasts singing like eggplants,
and a mouth above making kisses.
I want nipples like shy strawberries
for I need to suck the sky.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)