You'll Never Walk Alone
"You'll Never Walk Alone" is a song written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for their 1945 musical, Carousel.
In the musical, the song is sung after the death of the lead, Billy Bigelow, to give courage to Julie Jordan, pregnant with child at the time, and is sung in a later scene to encourage a graduation class of which Louise (their daughter) is a member. As a result, it has become a standard, sung by graduation classes in the United States.
The song's popularity arose during the original Broadway production because of World War II, where many members of the audience had husbands, brothers, boyfriends, or fiancés at war overseas, which led to solace in the song's message.
The song was recorded by many artists, first charting in 1945 in a version by Frank Sinatra (#9 on the Billboard charts). Patti LaBelle and the BlueBelles had a #34 charting version in 1964. Elvis Presley's version got to #90 in 1968.
In England, the song was recorded in the early 1960s by Liverpool group Gerry & the Pacemakers, and reached #1 in the UK charts on the 26th October 1963 where it stayed for 4 weeks. It was immediately adopted by Liverpool Football Club supporters [1] and is invariably sung by them at matches [2] (the words You'll Never Walk Alone feature in the club crest). The song subsequently spread to other football crowds, where it is sung intermittently, such as:
- Scotland: Celtic F.C..
- Netherlands: Feyenoord Rotterdam, Ajax Amsterdam, FC Twente.
- Germany: 1.FC Kaiserslautern, FC St. Pauli, Borussia Dortmund, 1. FC Köln.
- Japan: F.C. Tokyo.
- Australia: St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill.
Before the first leg of the 2002/2003 UEFA Cup tie between Celtic and Liverpool at Celtic Park, all the fans were led in the singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Gerry & The Pacemakers frontman Gerry Marsden, who became entangled in his microphone lead. Marsden was to do the same at the return leg at Anfield, but was unable due to a scheduling conflict.
The song also reached #1 in the UK charts in June 1985 for 2 weeks, a charity record, following the Valley Parade fire at Bradford City on 11 May 1985 (NOT the Heysel Stadium disaster 18 days later). The song was performed by The Crowd (including Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney and Rolf Harris). [3]
The song reached #1 in the UK charts for a third time when it was released by Robson and Jerome. The song reached number one on the November 3 1996 and remained there for two weeks selling in excess of 300,000 copies. The song was released as a single along with What Becomes of the Broken Hearted and Saturday Night at the Movies.
An operatic version by José Carreras, Plácido Domingo & Luciano Pavarotti with Mehta, reached number 21 in the UK charts in July 1998.
The song was sung in the BBC radio show The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Eddie, the shipboard computer.
It is also the corps song of the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, and is sung by Jerry Lewis at the end of his annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The song Fearless by Pink Floyd features a football crowd singing this song at the end. Students of St John's College, Cambridge sing a modified version called "Sign On" with the words 'You'll Never Be at John's', sung as a response to the song: "I'd Rather Be At Oxford Than At John's", which is sung by rival Colleges.
It also played by the Western Illinois University Marching Leathernecks at the end of every performance. The band faces each other in a large circle with a quartet in center. The members play and sing "Never Walk" as reminder of the strength of the bond between members. This tradition was started by the late Dale Hopper.