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Leader of the chart-topping 1960s Merseybeat band Gerry and the Pacemakers whose hits included You’ll Never Walk AloneWith his toothy grin and cheeky manner, Gerry Marsden, who has died aged 78, was one of the prime movers of the Merseybeat sound of the early 1960s. For a time, Marsden’s band, Gerry and the Pacemakers, were vying with the Beatles as Britain’s top pop group, both of them part of Brian Epstein’s Liverpool-based management stable.
In 1963 the Pacemakers topped the British charts with their first three singles, How Do You Do It?, I Like It and the Rodgers and Hammerstein composition You’ll Never Walk Alone (which became the theme tune of Liverpool FC). In this respect the Pacemakers had outstripped the Beatles, who did not manage to reach No 1 until their third single, From Me to You. It was only in 1984 that the Pacemakers’ feat was repeated, coincidentally by another Liverpool group, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Aptly, the B side of Frankie’s first big hit, Relax, was a version of Marsden’s composition Ferry Cross the Mersey, a Pacemakers hit from 1965.
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In 1963 the Pacemakers topped the British charts with their first three singles, How Do You Do It?, I Like It and the Rodgers and Hammerstein composition You’ll Never Walk Alone (which became the theme tune of Liverpool FC). In this respect the Pacemakers had outstripped the Beatles, who did not manage to reach No 1 until their third single, From Me to You. It was only in 1984 that the Pacemakers’ feat was repeated, coincidentally by another Liverpool group, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Aptly, the B side of Frankie’s first big hit, Relax, was a version of Marsden’s composition Ferry Cross the Mersey, a Pacemakers hit from 1965.
Continue reading...
More...