The world of football has heard many famous songs over the years, but some have become more iconic than others. You’ll Never Walk Alone (YWNA) is the most famous song in the history of football, associated with Liverpool and later adopted by various football clubs, including Borussia Dortmund and Celtic. YWNA is played at Anfield before and after every Liverpool match. The song is said to travel across Europe with the Reds during their tour and in different fields when Liverpool won the European Champion’s League five times.
The original YWNA song was composed in 1945 by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein for a Broadway musical show. The song became so popular that other artists composed cover versions, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Simone, Doris Day, and Louis Armstrong. Other versions of the song were recorded and released in the UK. Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1963 did a cover that became the most popular. The YWNA version by Gerry and the Pacemakers hit number one in the UK charts and remained there for a month. Liverpool adopted it as the club’s song around the same time.
Tommy Smith, a Liverpool player at the time, indicated that Bill Shankly, the Reds’ manager, heard the song during a pre-season trip and fell in love with it. As a result, reporters accompanying the team sent word home that You’ll Never Walk Alone is the new club song. The first evidence of Liverpool fans singing the song in their stands was recorded by BBC in 1965 when Shankly picked it when making an appearance on Desert Island Discs, a radio show by the BBC. Liverpool fans sang the song momentously, making it a phenomenon across Europe and beyond. It was so big that Pink Floyd, a famous British progressive rock group, incorporated parts of the Anfield crowd singing along to the song when creating the ‘Fearless’ song.
Liverpool fans strongly identify with the song because of its lyrics and origin. The original YWNA song by Rodgers and Hammerstein (1945) talks about togetherness and solidarity when walking through a storm or in the dark. Bill Shankly made sense of the song because, in the early 60s, the club was in the process of rebuilding. The Liverpool pool chants the song during matches to give the players the necessary morale and intimidate the opposition. This explains why other teams in Europe have adopted the song.
At Anfield, YWNA is played every time before kick-off. It is brought on board by the team and fans during away games. Over time, the song has acquired a mythical status for inspiring the Liverpool players to keep their faith. A classic example is during a match against AC Milan in 2005, when by the end of the first half, Liverpool was down three goals. The song evokes a spirit of togetherness, connecting the players, the manager, the fans, the staff, and the extended community into one. This harmonious spirit is the source of Liverpool’s success as a club over the past several years.
In one of the recent interviews, the team’s manager, Klopp, said that he did not know how much the YWNA song meant to the Liverpool community until he heard an NHS frontline worker singing it. He received videos of people in the hospital and outside the ICU singing the YWNA song. It is an uplifting song that sends a message of hope and togetherness. The song transcends the standard status of being a Liverpool anthem to become a sign of solidarity when faced with adversity. The lyrics of the song promise that at the end of the storm is a golden sky, a message that people would love to hear in their lowest moments. It is documented that YWNA gained significance and symbolism after the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, which left 96 fans dead.