The following is a guest blog by Damian Iseminger, Head of Bibliographic Access, Music Division.
Part of what makes soccer special to me are the rituals and traditions associated with it. Mine is getting up early on a weekend morning in the fall, winter and spring, and heading to a local establishment to watch my beloved team, the boys in red, Liverpool Football Club, compete in the English Premier League, the top-level of English soccer.
Before every home game at Anfield Stadium, after player introductions, the sounds of the Merseybeat group Gerry and the Pacemakers ring out with their 1963 cover of the Rodgers & Hammerstein standard “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” with supporters singing along, their scarves held outstretched above their heads. The song has become indelibly associated with the club, with its title also serving as the official motto. So powerful is this tradition that other clubs from across the world have adopted it as their own.
Soccer supporters singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was probably the furthest thing from the minds of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II when they wrote the song as part of the musical “Carousel,” premiered in April 1945. Based on Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 play “Liliom,” this was the duo’s follow-up to their groundbreaking and highly successful work “Oklahoma!”
At the time, the play did not seem an ideal property for a musical, as it included story elements of emotional and physical abuse by Liliom towards his wife Julie, a botched robbery (the proceeds of which were intended to support his unborn child) ending in Liliom’s suicide, and his inability to do a good deed for his daughter Louise when sent back to earth for one day 16 years later, possibly resulting in his consignment to perdition.
In the initial scenario devised by Hammerstein, which can be seen in the Oscar Hammerstein II Collection at the Library of Congress, the action of the play has been moved to the Maine coastline from Budapest, Hungary. The decidedly downbeat ending has been changed, with the finale taking place at Louise’s graduation ceremony, where Liliom (Billy Bigelow in subsequent revisions), is able to redeem himself. Other changes are present, yet the broad strokes of Molnár’s play remain, including the difficult elements of abuse and suicide.[1]”
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” has its first glimmers as a song in the scenario as part of act 2, scene 3, following the death of Billy, where a “Female Duet” with a “‘lullaby’ quality” is sung between Julie and Hollunder, a character dropped in subsequent revisions. It also appears that the content of the song would have been more directly related to memories of Billy.
Typed excerpt of original scenario of "Liliom," which later became "Carousel" by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Original scenario of “Liliom,” later titled “Carousel,” by Oscar Hammerstein II. Description of act 2, scene 3. Oscar Hammerstein II Collection, Library of Congress.
In its final version, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is a solo by Julie’s cousin Nettie, encouraging Julie to persevere through this tragedy, the lyrics broadly applicable to any difficult situation. The song is later reprised as a group number in the graduation scene at the end of the musical, the words and music helping Billy to reconcile with his daughter. The setting by Richard Rodgers, whose fair copy is preserved in the Richard Rodgers Collection of the Library of Congress, is in 4/4 time, has a hymn-like quality and functions as a non-sectarian devotional of comfort and encouragement, even though things may be tough.
Excerpt of manuscript piano-vocal score of "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Excerpt of the piano-vocal score, fair copy, of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Richard Rodgers Collection, Library of Congress.
“Carousel” went on to be another huge success for Rodgers and Hammerstein and confirmed that the songwriting duo would continue to be a force to be reckoned with on Broadway.
In the early 1960s, Liverpool, England, was beginning to establish itself as the epicenter of popular music in the United Kingdom. One of the more popular Merseyside bands was Gerry and the Pacemakers, fronted by Gerry Marsden. In 1963, the band, like their contemporaries, The Beatles, was managed by Brian Epstein and produced by George Martin. Their first single release in March 1963 of Mitch Murray’s “How Do You Do It” eventually ended up at No. 1 on the U.K. charts. The band then followed this up with another Murray song, “I Like It,” once again hitting No. 1. Sheet music for both songs is in the Library of Congress Catalog.
For their next release, Marsden wanted to record “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” He first heard the song when seeing the movie adaptation of “Carousel” and had made the song part of the band’s live sets. In the band’s performances, the rhythm of the original was altered to more of a swing beat and the line “Keep your chin up high” in the original changed to “Hold your head up high.” For the recording of the single, Martin added a string orchestra for extra effect. The single went on to hit No. 1 on the U.K. charts, with Gerry and the Pacemakers becoming the first band to ever have three consecutive No. 1 singles on the U.K. charts.
At Anfield, the home of Liverpool Football Club, the tradition in the early 1960s was to play the songs on the top 10 singles chart, counting down to No. 1 as part of the pre-match festivities, with the supporters often singing along. On October 19, 1963, the Gerry and the Pacemakers single of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was played for the first time at Anfield and was an instant hit among the supporters. It continued to be played until December 14, after which the song fell out of the top 10 and stopped being played. The absence did not go unnoticed. According to the club, complaints were received, asking “Where is our song?” By the start of the 1964-1965 season, supporters had fully adopted “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as their anthem, singing it before every home match.
In addition to being sung before every match, it will often be heard to provide encouragement to the team in a tough moment. Players for the 2005 Liverpool side remember hearing supporters singing the song when down 3-0 at halftime to Italian football club AC Milan in the Champions League final held in Istanbul, Turkey; Liverpool came back to win the match and lift the European Cup for the first time since 1984, a feat known as “The Miracle of Istanbul.”
The anthem can also serve the same function for Liverpool supporters as it did for Julie in “Carousel,” providing comfort during an acute loss. On April 15, 1989, ninety-seven Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed in a crush at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, prior to a Football Association Cup semi-final match. In the many memorial services held since the tragedy, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” has often been sung by the congregants at the conclusion, to help the living to keep on walking.
And then there are the times when the anthem is sung to celebrate when the improbable becomes reality. On May 7, 2019, Liverpool entered the second leg of their European semi-final, down 3-0 against Barcelona. Incredibly the team won the match 4-0, thus winning the semi-final by an aggregate score of 4-3, and qualifying for the Champions League final, which Liverpool went on to win. After the incredible comeback, players and coaches lined up in front of the Kop Stand and sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” with their supporters, a heaving mass of red celebrating the impossible being achieved.
This summer, more memories will be made as national teams compete in North America to lift the World Cup, the most prestigious trophy in the international game. If you tune in or attend a match, you’ll see thousands of supporters cheering on their team, each group in their own way, with their own traditions. Come autumn, I’ll be back to cheering on Liverpool, singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and marveling that a song from an American musical documented in the Music Division at the Library of Congress is part of arguably the most iconic tradition in all of soccer.
[1] The filmed version of “Carousel” changes the suicide to an accidental death while Billy is fleeing the police after the failed robbery.
Read more about connections between soccer, the World Cup and the Library of Congress:
Research Guide: World Cup, 1930-
Blog: Music Meets World Cup Fever
Blog: The World Cup at the Library
Blog: Exploring Nine Decades of World Cup History at the Library of Congress