Everton Fan Laments Origin of Liverpool Anthem

Remembering Liverpool’s other “British Invasion” band

Gerry and the Pacemakers

I’ve heard that when Gerry Marsden was in New York for Sullivan’s show, he went to Broadway to see the musical “Carousel.”
I don’t know if that’s true, but Gerry and his band did make a major pop hit of “Carousel’s” signature song, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” (Late 1963) Marsden didn’t write the song, of course. The lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein. But they were right up Gerry Marsden’s alley. In fact, Gerry says he fell in love with the song as a kid, so it probably inspired his song writing.

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The story goes that Gerry Marsden presented a disk of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to Bill Shankley, the legendary manager of Liverpool, FC. Shankley was blown away, and picked it during an appearance on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs radio show in 1965.

Liverpool fans, who were singing Beatles songs during matches, started singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Soon, it became the team’s anthem, sung with gusto, accompanied by Gerry’s recording, by something like 50,000 Liverpool fans before every Liverpool home game.

If only Gerry had been an Everton fan.​