So who did actually sing "You'll Never Walk Alone" first. Would that be Liverpool, Celtic or Manchester United ?
The Bindippers
There is overwhelming evidence that Liverpool Football Club supporters were the first to sing this song en masse. The song was famously covered by Liverpool group 'Gerry and the Pacemakers' in 1963. At this time, supporters standing on the Spion Kop terrace at Anfield began singing popular chart songs of the day. Their "inventive ferocity" was captured on camera by BBC Panorama in 1964. One year later, when Liverpool met Leeds United in the F.A. Cup Final, the travelling Kop sang the same song and match commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme commended the "Liverpool signature tune." The Dippers have been singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' since 1963. Fully 45 years.
Celtic sang it on two or three occasions during the 1970s, along with Aberdeen and Hibernian, though it was only popularised and formally adopted by the Parkhead faithful in the mid- to late-1980s. Liverpool were invited to play a charity game at Celtic Park following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Both sets of fans sang it together as a symbol of unity and support. Only in the years to follow - as both clubs repeatedly came together in a series of friendly matches - did Celtic begin to sing it on a regular basis, otherwise they have no legitimate claim to the song, nor is there any earlier evidence seriously linking them to it. Liverpool can produce an abundance of written material and video evidence. Celtic not so much.
Manchester United supporter Jane Hardwick asserted in 2004 that she, together with friends from the New Mills Operatic Society, decided to sing the song at "one of the games" following the Munich Air Disaster as her own personal tribute, before spontaneously being joined "by thousands of fans" around her. This would predate Gerry Marsden's faster-paced cover version by five years. However, as one local supporter scoffed:
"Anyone who has watched [or] listened to Carousel will tell you, the composition and performance of the musical version with the popular Gerry Marsden version sounds completely different."
Manchester United booked their place in the Carling Cup final despite being given a late scare by Derby County.
