Together Forever

If you've been around in the last few months, you don't even have to ask what's happening today - you know the rules and so do I. In fact, I don't even have to put a single R in this sentence to make you know what's happening today.

"Huh," one of you is saying. "You just quoted the lyrics for Never Gonna Give You Up instead of Together Forever. You should really stay quiet, since you're another one of those people who can't even tell the difference between two songs." Well, I'm about to prove that the two songs you're thinking about are pretty well connected.

Together Forever often gets referred to as "the other Rick Astley song." Of course, I've been around long enough to know that musicians generally don't make 2 songs and then disappear. What these commenters mean to say, most likely, is the other song that he became famous for around the same time. After all, it was 1988, and Rick had just been broadcasted around (quite literally) the entire world. Listeners had quite a reason to be excited when the radios announced that he had a brand-new song.

Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on teawithliya.blogspot.ca, you may need to try a different browser.)



Of course, there are people younger than them, who don't remember the mass media celebration that was Rick's career in the 80s. They can't just look back on the days when the tapes were still rolling and the vinyl records were still spinning. However, they've still gotten exposed to Rick's signature hit, thanks to some trends on the internet that lasted a bit (i.e. more than 10 years) longer than expected. Whenever these young people finally get the idea to listen to another one of Rick's songs, like Together Forever, they often react with a comment like, "I can't believe how similar these two songs sound!"

Together Forever and NGGYU have pretty similar chords, and quite similar melodies too, so listeners have a good reason behind their claims. The songs are close enough to each other that you could take the chorus of one and sing it on top of the other. (Several people have thought of that and made remixes of the two put together.)

This similarity between songs was probably typical in the pop industry at the time. "Look, we've created a song that people are willing to listen to repeatedly. Surely, the best way to make money from this new singer we have on our hands is to write another song just like it."

Some people know Together Forever for yet another reason. Digital pianos often come with preset songs that they can play back from a recording. I've heard several reports of Casio pianos that have Together Forever as one of their playback songs. The owners of these keyboards, in some cases, have memorized a song that was a hit before they were born, and then found out years later that it was by Rick.

Of course, I have a Casio keyboard, and it came with a lot of classical songs, a few of which I've learned since getting the keyboard... but no Together Forever. Out of all people to not have the recording, it had to be me, right?

Well, I'm glad I got to find out about Rick eventually, even though my piano didn't help me with that. You've got to stir something new into your teacup every once in a while, even if you don't immediately expect to like it.

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya