Barry Manilow: Rickroller

noah | October 17, 2008 12:30 pm

In the latest mission of his quest to milk the nostalgia of any group that has disposable income, Barry Manilow is releasing an all-covers album of songs from the 1980s next month. Manilow will take on “Careless Whisper,” “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now),” “Islands In The Stream” (with Reba McEntire), and… “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Yes, that’s right: We’ve evolved as a society in such a way that even Barry Freakin’ Manilow has to pander to those people on the Internet who still think the phenomenon of “Rickrolling”–in which you make yourself laugh by surprising whoever you’re engaged in instant-messenger chatter with a link to a clip of Rick Astley singing his 1987 hit–is funny. You’d think that the man who sang on many a McDonald’s ad would deserve a break today, but I guess this is the time we live in. Anyway, it’s time to figure out how Manilow will fare against other people who have tried to hop on the Rickrolling bandwagon! I’ve placed five other covers of Astley’s signature track after the jump.

First off, here’s the original, which you’ve probably heard at least once in the last year since you’re currently using the Internet.

Now we have the covers.

High School Musical starlet Ashley Tisdale:

Christian pop act MercyMe:

Rosso Barocco (more of a remix than a cover, but it’s better than the Tisdale version for sure):

Deep-voiced Internet sensation Tay Zonday:

Safe-as-milk pop act Kids Incorporated (featuring Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson on backup dancing):

I doubt Manilow’s vocal range will allow him to beat Astley at his own song, but something tells me he’ll be more than able to out-croon any of these Astley-come-latelies. And who knows, maybe he could even best this version:

Greatest Songs Of The Eighties [Amazon]