Come for Rick Astley, stay for Dave Grohl losing his mind when they mash up "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Never Gonna Give You Up."
If you’re a millennial of any age or a Gen X’er, then you’ve definitely been Rick Roll’d at some point during our time on the world wide web. It’s an online trolling rite of passage that has been honored since the days of AIM and Myspace.
But you probably have never found yourself thinking, “You know what would be the perfect mashup with this song? ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.'”
On the surface, the two songs seem to have less in common than Mr. Rodgers and Eric Cartman but it turns out, due to a 2017 Foo Fighters concert, that the two deeply dissimilar tunes are actually a match made in sonic heaven. At a Foo Fighters concert, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl brought Rick Astley onstage, where he greeted the crowd with a hearty “Come on, you motherfuckers!”
From there, the Foo Fighters begin playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” but instead of the usual lyrics, Astley starts singing the infamous lyrics to “Never Gonna Give You Up.” By the time the chorus hits, you’ll find yourself wishing that Grohl and Astley would head into the studio to record an official version of “Never Gonna Smell Like Teen Spirit.”
Maybe the best part of the entire thing is Grohl’s enthusiasm during the entire song, as he clearly loves the fact that the two songs are such an unexpectedly effective pairing. And it’s easy to see why he is so stoked, as it is legitimately wild how much the two tunes sync up, as someone who had never heard either song would totally believe that this is a real song that absolutely slaps (am I using that word right?).
I think the only logical conclusion to this is that “Rick Rolling Like Teen Spirit” becomes the newest way to annoy your friends online. Not only does it add a fresh new angle to one of the most reliable and beloved pranks in internet history, but it also gives us all an excuse to hear the mashup on a regular basis.
