British crooner Marsden, 78, dies after brief illness
Song by his group became soccer team anthem
LONDON — Gerry Marsden, lead singer of the 1960s British group Gerry and the Pacemakers, which 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.
Marsden was the lead singer of the band, which 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.”
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.
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.
The song was embraced during the outset of the coronavirus pandemic last spring when a cover of the song, which featured World War II veteran Tom Moore, reached number one. Moore had captivated the British public by walking 100 laps of his garden in England in the run-up to his 100th birthday in April to raise some $40 million for the National Health Service.
Marsden is survived by his wife, Pauline, whom he married in 1965. The couple had two daughters.