Pacemaker singer Gerry Marsden, whose version of ‘you’ll never walk alone’ became a football terrace anthem for his hometown club of Liverpool, has died at the age of 78.
Originally a show tune in musical Carousel, Marsden and his band covered the hit in 1963, and it was number one in the UK singles chart for four weeks.
The club’s fans soon adopted the song as an anthem sung before and after games,
Liverpool’s legendary manager Billy Shankly was reportedly in awe of the track when he heard it on a pre-season coach trip the summer it had been recorded.
According to Sky News, Shankly loved the hit so much he reportedly told Marsden in 1964: “Gerry my son, I have given you a football team and you have given us a song.”
A year later Shankly picked it as his final track on desert Island discs ahead of the 1965 FA Cup final.
Since then till today it has been the club’s number one anthem.
His family said he died on Sunday, 3 January, after a short illness not linked to Covid-19.
Marsden’s band was one of the biggest success stories of the Merseybeat era, and in 1963 became the first to have their first three songs top the chart.
Marsden was made an MBE in 2003 for services to charity after supporting victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
Marsden’s daughter, Yvette Marbeck, said he went to the hospital on boxing day after tests showed he had a serious blood infection that had travelled to his heart.
Ms Marbeck said: “It was a very short illness and too quick to comprehend really.
”He died in the hospital, he was our dad, our hero, warm, funny and what you see is what you got, Ms Marbeck said.
Liverpool FC posted on social media that Marsden’s words would live on forever with them.
Gerry and the Pacemakers worked the same Liverpool club circuit as the Beatles in the 1960s and were signed by the fab four’s manager Brian Epstein.