How do you do it? A brief story on how a song helped create our Anthem

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On the 4th of September 1962 the Beatles recorded a song called “How do you do it?” written by Mitch Murray & Adam Faith at Abbey Road (song below).

For some reason the Fab Four did not release it as a single and George Martin decided to release the version recorded by the other scousers “Gerry and the Pacemakers” (below). The song was a huge hit and reached no 1 in April 1963 propelling  “Gerry and the Pacemakers” to instant stardom. The hit single was followed by two other number ones  that same year, “I Like It” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.



“You’ll Never Walk Alone”
was a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel and had been recorded by many other renowned singers in the 40s and 50s which included Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Doris Day, Perry Como, Mario Lanza, Gene Vincent, Malcolm Vaughan and Shirley Basey.

According to Tommy Smith, Gerry Marsden (Who is a great Kopite) gave a pre-released copy to Bill Shankly in the Pre-season of 1963. Shankly loved the song and some journalists reported back that Liverpool had adopted the song as the club’s song. Well it stuck and now the song has become synonymous with Liverpool and Football as many clubs have also adopted it as their anthem.

So one wonders what would have happened if the Beatles had released “How do you do it?”, would our theme song have been different? Would we have adopted a Beatles song?

antoine@empireofthekop.com

-Antoine

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