Gerry and the Pacemakers 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.
His family said on Sunday he died 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.
The second of those was Ferry Cross The Mersey, written by Marsden.
Marsden was made an MBE in 2003 for services to charity after supporting victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
While Marsden was a songwriter as well as a singer, his most enduring hit was actually a cover of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical number from 1945, that he had to convince his bandmates to record as their third single.
In many interviews over the years, he explained how fate played a part in his band ever recording the song. He was watching a Laurel and Hardy movie at Liverpool's Odeon cinema in the early 1960s and, only because it was raining, he decided to stay for the second part of a double feature.
That turned out to be the film Carousel - which featured that song on its soundtrack - and Marsden was so moved by the lyrics that he became determined that it should become part of his band's repertoire.
In a 2013 interview, Marsden told the Liverpool FC website how You'll Never Walk Alone was adopted by the club's fans as soon as it topped the chart in 1963: "I remember being at Anfield and before every kick off they used to play the top 10 from number 10 to number one, and so You'll Never Walk Alone was played before the match. I was at the game and the fans started singing it.
"When it went out of the top 10 they took the song off the playlist and then for the next match the Kop were shouting 'Where's our song?' So they had to put it back on.
"Now, every time I go to the game I still get goose pimples when the song comes on and I sing my head off."
Sad. RIP Gerry. YNWA.
His family said on Sunday he died 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.
The second of those was Ferry Cross The Mersey, written by Marsden.
Marsden was made an MBE in 2003 for services to charity after supporting victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
While Marsden was a songwriter as well as a singer, his most enduring hit was actually a cover of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical number from 1945, that he had to convince his bandmates to record as their third single.
In many interviews over the years, he explained how fate played a part in his band ever recording the song. He was watching a Laurel and Hardy movie at Liverpool's Odeon cinema in the early 1960s and, only because it was raining, he decided to stay for the second part of a double feature.
That turned out to be the film Carousel - which featured that song on its soundtrack - and Marsden was so moved by the lyrics that he became determined that it should become part of his band's repertoire.
In a 2013 interview, Marsden told the Liverpool FC website how You'll Never Walk Alone was adopted by the club's fans as soon as it topped the chart in 1963: "I remember being at Anfield and before every kick off they used to play the top 10 from number 10 to number one, and so You'll Never Walk Alone was played before the match. I was at the game and the fans started singing it.
"When it went out of the top 10 they took the song off the playlist and then for the next match the Kop were shouting 'Where's our song?' So they had to put it back on.
"Now, every time I go to the game I still get goose pimples when the song comes on and I sing my head off."
Liverpool FC anthem singer Gerry Marsden dies aged 78
The Gerry and the Pacemakers singer's number one hit became a football terrace anthem.
www.bbc.co.uk
Sad. RIP Gerry. YNWA.
