Living in an area with a large contingent of Liverpool fans, writes Damian, who lives in Chester should you be wondering, I'm constantly being drawn into debates about who sang You'll Never Walk Alone first. I've failed to come up with evidence to support my belief that it was the Celtic faithful. I'd appreciate any information which serves to conclude this dispute once and for all.
While many Celtic fan-based websites provide the words to You'll Never Walk Alone, and it features on the CD Green & White Anthems, there is no historical evidence that Celtic fans sang it on their terraces first. Instead, a cursory glance back in time shows that Liverpool have the much stronger claims.
After all, the song, originally written by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1945 for the Broadway musical Carousel, only became a terrace favourite after it was covered by Gerry and the Pacemakers in November 1963. Almost immediately - as footage from Panorama in 1964 shows - Liverpool supporters adopted it.
As Paul Fields points out: "Before the early 60s football fans made noise and occasionally chanted something brief (like Play Up Pompey!) but it was the Kop that started singing popular songs of the day (mainly Merseybeat songs such as Gerry and the Pacemakers' You'll Never Walk Alone) and later started to adapt the lyrics of songs to celebrate the team and its players.
"If any Celtic fans still claim that they sang it first, it would have to predate Gerry's version. Now can you really see thousands of working class Glaswegians in the 50s/early 60s spontaneously joining in a sing-along from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?" No, us neither.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2003/mar/12/theknowledge.sport
