The Anfield Stadium in Liverpool may look like- a million miles apart from the world of musical theatre. How, therefore, did the remarkable song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel become associated with The Club?
The track “You’ll Never Walk Alone” made its debut in 1945. It was an integral part of the production of Rodgers and Hammerstein Carousel.
Later, in 1963, Liverpool FC heard the song. The credit goes to a recording by Merseybeat group Gerry And The Pacemakers.
It’s possible that the song’s theme of triumph over adverse circumstances resonated with the wartime crowds of April 1945. It happened just less than a month before World War Two came to an end.
It was still liked and admired in the 1950s, and singers like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley released covers of the track.
Shortly after Gerry and the Pacemakers’ cover of the song was published, Liverpool is said to have covered it again.
On a preseason outing, Marsden assumably had given a copy of the song to the club’s illustrious manager Bill Shankly.
According to Tommy Smith, a Liverpool player in 1963, Shankly was “in awe of what he heard.”
The song had changed into Liverpool’s new anthem. The local media reporters who were watching the trip relayed this to people back home.
Before that year’s FA Cup final matchup versus Leeds, Shankly made the song selection during his appearance on Desert Island Discs.
The earliest recorded instance of Liverpool supporters singing the song, one can watch in the stands on video from their 2-1 victory in that game at Wembley.
After the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989, You’ll Never Walk Alone sublimed the significance. The track is You’ll Never Walk Alone performed as a memorial to the 97 fan families. The families who lost loved ones during the semifinal of FA Cup in Sheffield.