‘You’ll Never Walk Alone:’ Singer Gerry Marsden dies

LONDON » Gerry Marsden, lead singer of the 1960s British group Gerry and the Pacemakers that had such hits as “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and the song that became the anthem of Liverpool Football Club, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” has died. He was 78.

His family said that Marsden died Sunday “after a short illness in no way connected with COVID-19” and that his wife, daughters and grandchildren are “devastated.”

His friend Pete Price said on Instagram after speaking to Marsden’s family that the singer died after a short illness related to a heart infection.

“I’m sending all the love in the world to (his wife) Pauline and his family,” he said. “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Marsden was the lead singer of the band that found fame in the Merseybeat scene in the 1960s. Though another Liverpool band — The Beatles — reached superstardom, Gerry and the Pacemakers will always have a place in the city’s consciousness because of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

“I thought what a beautiful song. I’m going to tell my band we’re going to play that song,” Marsden told The Associated Press in 2018 when recalling the first time he heard the song at the cinema. “So I went back and told my buddies we’re doing a ballad called ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’”

Marsden is best known for his band’s rendition of the song from “Carousel,” which was a 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that became a feature film in 1956. The Pacemakers’ cover version was released in October 1963 and became the band’s third No. 1 hit on the British singles chart.

It was adopted by fans of the soccer club Liverpool and is sung with spine-tingling passion before each home game of the 19-time English champion — before coronavirus restrictions meant many matches being played in empty stadiums.

“I was saddened by Gerry Marsden’s passing. His voice will always lead the way at Anfield, in times of celebration or lament,” singer Elvis Costello said, referring to Liverpool’s stadium.

The song’s lyrics, showcasing unity and perseverance through adversity — including “When you walk through a storm, Hold your head up high, And don’t be afraid of the dark” — have been a rallying cry for the Liverpool faithful and the song’s title are on the Liverpool club crest.

The song has also been adopted by supporters of Scotland’s Celtic and Germany’s Borussia Dortmund.