You'll Never Walk Alone

"You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and encourage Julie when her husband, Billy Bigelow, the male lead, falls on his knife and dies after a failed robbery attempt. It is reprised in the final scene to encourage a graduation class of which Louise (Billy and Julie's daughter) is a member. The now invisible Billy, who has been granted the chance to return to Earth for one day in order to redeem himself, watches the ceremony and is able to silently motivate the unhappy Louise to join in the song.

The song is also sung at association football clubs around the world, where it is performed by a massed chorus of supporters on matchday; this tradition began at Liverpool F.C. after the chart success of the 1963 single of the song by the local Liverpool group Gerry and the Pacemakers.^[1]

Background

Christine Johnson, who created the role of Nettie Fowler, introduced the song in the original Broadway production.^[2] Later in the show Jan Clayton, as Julie Jordan, reprised it, with the chorus joining in.

In the film, it is first sung by Claramae Turner as Nettie. The weeping Julie Jordan (Shirley Jones) tries to sing it but cannot; it is later reprised by Julie and those attending the graduation.

Subsequent history

Besides the recordings of the song on the Carousel cast albums and the film soundtrack, the song has been recorded by many artists, with notable hit versions made by Roy Hamilton,^[3] Frank Sinatra, Roy Orbison, Billy Eckstine, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Andy Williams, Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge, Olivia Newton-John and Doris Day. Progressive rock group Pink Floyd took a recording by the Liverpool Kop choir, and "interpolated" it into their own song, "Fearless", on their 1971 album Meddle.

From 1964 through 2010, Jerry Lewis concluded the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon by singing the song.^[4] After the end of a concert by the rock band Queen, the audience spontaneously sang this song, according to lead guitarist Brian May,^[5] and this helped to inspire the creation of their songs "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You". Italian-American tenor Sergio Franchi sang a notable version accompanied by the Welsh Men's Choir on the 9 June 1968 telecast of The Ed Sullivan Show.^[6] He also covered this song in his 1964 RCA Victor album The Exciting Voice of Sergio Franchi.^[7] American singer and songwriter Barbra Streisand sang this song in a surprise appearance at the close of the 2001 Emmy Awards, in honor of the victims of the 11 September 2001 attacks.^[8]

In 1990 at the Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute for a Free South Africa concert at Wembley Stadium London, the audience spontaneously broke out into a mass rendition. Mandela turned to Adelaide Tambo who accompanied him onto the stage and asked what the song was. She replied, "A football song".

Renée Fleming sang the song at the Concert for America, which marked the first anniversary of 9/11 (11/9),^[9][10] and for the Inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009.^[11]

In 2010, this was sung during the festivities of the Last Night of the Proms, with the choir at the Royal Albert Hall joined by crowds of the public from Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland; Caird Hall, Dundee; Hyde Park, London; Salford, Greater Manchester; and Wales, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Oscar Hammerstein II.

In the second season of American Horror Story, this song was recited as a poem.

It has been the song of the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps song since 1954, where they first performed it as a part of their first field show in 1954. Challenged by the Rosemont Cavaliers singing "Over the Rainbow" in 1957, the corps responded with "You'll Never Walk Alone", and it has been the official corps song ever since.

Punk band Dropkick Murphys covered the song for their 2017 album 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory. Vocalist/bassist Ken Casey said in a December 2016 interview discussing the reason behind their version. "As you may know, opiate overdoses are an epidemic in America now particularly in (the Boston) area. I've been to thirty wakes in two years, three this week, one being my cousin, Al's lost a brother in law. It's hit home close to us. I was leaving one of the wakes and this song came on and as I was listening to the lyrics it summed up exactly how I was feeling. Sad, but knowing there is hope. You never have to be alone. I hope you like our version".

Sporting anthem

In the UK, the song's most successful cover was released in 1963 by the Liverpudlian Merseybeat group Gerry and the Pacemakers, peaking at number one on the UK singles chart for four consecutive weeks. Sung by Liverpool fans in 1963, the song quickly became the anthem of Liverpool F.C. and is sung by its supporters moments before the start of each home game with the Gerry and the Pacemakers version played over the public address system.^[1][13][14]

According to former player Tommy Smith, lead vocalist Gerry Marsden presented Liverpool manager Bill Shankly with a recording of his forthcoming cover single during a pre-season coach trip in the summer of 1963. "Shanks was in awe of what he heard. ... Football writers from the local newspapers were travelling with our party and, thirsty for a story of any kind between games, filed copy back to their editors to the effect that we had adopted Gerry Marsden's forthcoming single as the club song."^[15] The squad was subsequently invited to perform the track with the band on The Ed Sullivan Show^[1] with Marsden stating, "Bill came up to me. He said, 'Gerry my son, I have given you a football team and you have given us a song'."^[1]

The 'Shankly Gates' entrance to Liverpool's home stadium Anfield

Shankly picked the song as his eighth and final selection for the BBC's Desert Island Discs on the eve of the 1965 FA Cup Final.^[16] As Liverpool fans sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" at Wembley during the 1965 FA Cup Final win over Leeds, commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme referred to it as "Liverpool's signature tune".^[17] Marsden told BBC Radio how, in the 1960s, the disc jockey at Anfield would play the top ten commercial records in descending order, with the number one single played last, shortly before kickoff. Liverpool fans on the Kop would sing along, but unlike with other hit singles, once "You'll Never Walk Alone" dropped out of the top ten, instead of disregarding the song, supporters continued to sing it.^[18][19]

The song was adopted by Scottish team Celtic after a 1966 Cup Winners Cup semi-final against Liverpool at Anfield.^[1][17] It is now sung by Celtic fans prior to every home European tie.^[1][17][20] The song has also been adopted by Dutch team Feyenoord, SC Cambuur,^[21] Germany's Borussia Dortmund,^[17] 1. FSV Mainz 05, TSV 1860 Munich,^[22] Japan's F.C. Tokyo,^[23] Spain's CD Lugo.^[24] the Marist St. Pats MSP 80/80 Blues, and Bali United.^[25] In ice hockey, the song has been adopted by German Deutsche Eishockey Liga side Krefeld Pinguine and Croatian Medveščak Zagreb.

A special recording of the song was made in solidarity with Bradford City following the Valley Parade fire in 1985, when 56 spectators died and many more were seriously injured. The song was performed by The Crowd, which was a supergroup featuring Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney and others, and spent two weeks at number one in the UK.

Some years later, after witnessing a rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" at Anfield in 2007, the President of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco, said he felt inspired to seek lyrics to his country's wordless national anthem, the Marcha Real, ahead of Madrid's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.^[26][27]

During the 2014 Hong Kong protests, legislator Tam Yiu Chung quoted the song during a Legislative Council of Hong Kong meeting, to salute the Hong Kong Police,^[28] who had received widespread criticism for using excessive force against pro-democracy protesters. More than 2,000 Liverpool Football Club fans in Hong Kong condemned his inappropriate use of the song, comparing his support of the police action to the police actions in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, where South Yorkshire Police were found to have distorted facts relating to the unlawful killing by negligence of 96 Liverpool supporters.^[29][30][31]

On 13 March 2016, after Borussia Dortmund's 2-0 win against 1. FSV Mainz 05 in the German Bundesliga, supporters of both teams performed the song to commemorate a Dortmund fan who died from a cardiac arrest in the stands during the game.^[32]

Recorded versions

• Keith Jack (2008)

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics