The origin story of the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" has absolutely zero relation to football. It was written by Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II (considered one of the greatest songwriting duos in musicals ever, their most famous work is probably The Sound Of Music, which was adapted to a hugely iconic starred by Julie Andrews) for their classic musical "Carousel", which opened on Broadway in April, 1945.
The context in which it was sung in the musical also has zero relation to football (and, as you will see better why in the end of this post, Richard Rodgers HATED its use by Liverpool's supporters). In the context of the musical, the song is sung by the character of Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, to comfort and encourage Julie when her husband, Billy Bigelow, the male lead, falls on his knife and dies after a failed robbery attempt. Below is the version from the first cast recording of the musical, in July 1945:
Though the first recorded version of the song was by Frank Sinatra in May 1945:
Anyway, most of american popular music pre-rock was originally written for Broadway musicals or Hollywood musicals, and then would be recorded by pretty much everyone and played in radios. That was the meat of the great american popular music in the first half of the 20st century and it is collectively known as "Great American Songbook" or also the Golden Age of Pop. And the roles of singer and songwriters generally didn't overlap.
Things remained like this until rock in 50s and 60s dramatically changed the country's culture forever in countless aspects of the arts, the entertainment industry and the society. Musicals, previously the big supply of american popular music and the main focus of the best composers, fell out of fashion. Singer-songwriters became a industry standard (people started to expect and demand their artists to write their own songs), target audience shifted to a younger demographic...
Richard Rodgers is, alongside the likes of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and George Gershwin, one of the greatest songwriters of that entire era of the 1920s until 1950s.
Some of the great songwriters of that period, like Cole Porter, George Gershwin or Harold Arlen, were very enthusiastic about really unique, creative and personal interpretations of their songs. A part of this is because they loved jazz.
Others, though, were far more strict and stern, like Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers.
Richard Rodgers wanted everyone to sing his songs pretty much exactly as he had written them, as they were originally sung in his musicals. Pretty much no singer escaped from his rage. For example, when he heard Peggy Lee's whiplash version of his waltz "Lover", he said to her, "Why pick on me when you could have f**ked up 'Silent Night'?".
So, if you think that he didn't take well to You'll Never Walk Alone becoming a popular anthem for Liverpool, you're damn right.
When he discovered that his secular hymn was now "some football song" roared out every Saturday afternoon by bazillions of footie fans, his first reaction was one of horror. His second reaction was to call his lawyer and see if there was any way to have it stopped. There wasn't.
Source: https://www.steynonline.com/10257/youll-never-walk-alone
The context in which it was sung in the musical also has zero relation to football (and, as you will see better why in the end of this post, Richard Rodgers HATED its use by Liverpool's supporters). In the context of the musical, the song is sung by the character of Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, to comfort and encourage Julie when her husband, Billy Bigelow, the male lead, falls on his knife and dies after a failed robbery attempt. Below is the version from the first cast recording of the musical, in July 1945:
Though the first recorded version of the song was by Frank Sinatra in May 1945:
Anyway, most of american popular music pre-rock was originally written for Broadway musicals or Hollywood musicals, and then would be recorded by pretty much everyone and played in radios. That was the meat of the great american popular music in the first half of the 20st century and it is collectively known as "Great American Songbook" or also the Golden Age of Pop. And the roles of singer and songwriters generally didn't overlap.
Things remained like this until rock in 50s and 60s dramatically changed the country's culture forever in countless aspects of the arts, the entertainment industry and the society. Musicals, previously the big supply of american popular music and the main focus of the best composers, fell out of fashion. Singer-songwriters became a industry standard (people started to expect and demand their artists to write their own songs), target audience shifted to a younger demographic...
Richard Rodgers is, alongside the likes of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and George Gershwin, one of the greatest songwriters of that entire era of the 1920s until 1950s.
Some of the great songwriters of that period, like Cole Porter, George Gershwin or Harold Arlen, were very enthusiastic about really unique, creative and personal interpretations of their songs. A part of this is because they loved jazz.
Others, though, were far more strict and stern, like Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers.
Richard Rodgers wanted everyone to sing his songs pretty much exactly as he had written them, as they were originally sung in his musicals. Pretty much no singer escaped from his rage. For example, when he heard Peggy Lee's whiplash version of his waltz "Lover", he said to her, "Why pick on me when you could have f**ked up 'Silent Night'?".
So, if you think that he didn't take well to You'll Never Walk Alone becoming a popular anthem for Liverpool, you're damn right.
When he discovered that his secular hymn was now "some football song" roared out every Saturday afternoon by bazillions of footie fans, his first reaction was one of horror. His second reaction was to call his lawyer and see if there was any way to have it stopped. There wasn't.
Source: https://www.steynonline.com/10257/youll-never-walk-alone
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And while you're at it, you might also add that it was first sung by supporters across England, not just in Liverpool, as fans used to sign popular pop songs on the terraces at the time. (For example, there's footage of supporters singing songs from The Beatles.)