Whenever You Need Somebody

Whenever You Need Somebody is the debut studio album by English singer Rick Astley released on 16 November 1987 by RCA Records. It is his best-selling album, which, according to his own official website, has sold 15.2 million copies worldwide. The album is listed as the 136th best-selling album in Spain and was the seventh best-selling album of 1987 in the United Kingdom. A remastered version, containing rare remixes and extended versions, was released on 12 April 2010.

Critical reception
Alex Henderson of AllMusic stated that SAW "should definitely be proud of their work" on this "often captivating debut album" which "proved [the singer] to be a welcome addition to the British R&B scene"; he added that the "music approach is very much a production of the '70s" and underlined tracks like "Together Forever", "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "Don't Say Goodbye". Much more critical of both SAW and Astley, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice ranked the album in the "Must to avoid" category, and added: "Musically [Astley]'s a throwback to such long-forgotten big-band singers manqué as Don Rondo" revealed "as I-am-somebody for nobodies with a master plan". James Hamilton of Record Mirror presented the album as being "as vigorously voiced and unsubtle as you'd expect". Carmen Keats of Melody Maker described the album as "Yuppie-boy muzak for those too poor and thick to be Yuppies." According to a reviewer of British magazine Music Week, the album proves Astley to be "a respectable if so far unexceptional writer", but concluded that the tone of the whole album is given by SAW's team. Chris Heath of Smash Hits praised the album full of songs with "the same straightforward, deliriously catchy dance music as his first two hits", and underlined "Don't Say Goodbye" and "When I Fall in Love" as "brilliant" songs. Retrospectively, in 2018, Mark Elliot of Classic Pop considered Whenever You Need Somebody as the ninth best album ever produced by Stock Aitken Waterman and underlined its worldwide success, selling 15 million copies.

2022 remaster (digital)
Track listing per Apple Music

Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Whenever You Need Somebody.

Musicians

 * Rick Astley – vocals, guitars (8, 9)
 * Mike Stock – keyboards
 * Matt Aitken – keyboards, guitars
 * Paul Cox – guitar (3), photographer (1)
 * A. Linn – drums
 * Ian Curnow – Fairlight programming, keyboards (5, 7)
 * Daize Washbourn – keyboards, drums (8, 9)
 * Gary Barnacle – saxophone (7)
 * Shirley Lewis, Dee Lewis, Mae McKenna, Suzanne Rhatigan – backing vocals

Technical

 * Stock Aitken Waterman – production (1–4, 6, 10)
 * Phil Harding – production, mixing (5, 7)
 * Ian Curnow – production (tracks 5, 7)
 * Daize Washbourn – production (8, 9)
 * Mark McGuire – engineering, mixing (4, 10)
 * Phil Harding, Karen Hewitt, Mike Duffy, Jamie Bromfield – additional engineering
 * Yoyo, Jonathan King, Peter Day, Boky, Gordon Dennis – engineering assistance
 * Pete Hammond – mixing (1–3, 6, 8, 9)