<P> According to former player Tommy Smith, lead vocalist Gerry Marsden presented Liverpool manager Bill Shankly with a recording of his forthcoming cover single during a pre-season coach trip in the summer of 1963 . "Shanks was in awe of what he heard...Football writers from the local newspapers were travelling with our party and, thirsty for a story of any kind between games, filed copy back to their editors to the effect that we had adopted Gerry Marsden's forthcoming single as the club song ." The squad was subsequently invited to perform the track with the band on The Ed Sullivan Show with Marsden stating, "Bill came up to me . He said,' Gerry my son, I have given you a football team and you have given us a song' ." </P> <P> Shankly picked the song as his eighth and final selection for the BBC's Desert Island Discs on the eve of the 1965 FA Cup Final . As Liverpool fans sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" at Wembley during the 1965 FA Cup Final win over Leeds, commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme referred to it as "Liverpool's signature tune". Marsden told BBC Radio how, in the 1960s, the disc jockey at Anfield would play the top - ten commercial records in descending order, with the number one single played last, shortly before kickoff . Liverpool fans on the Kop would sing along, but unlike with other hit singles, once "You'll Never Walk Alone" dropped out of the top - ten, instead of disregarding the song, supporters continued to sing it . </P> <P> The song was adopted by Scottish team Celtic after a 1966 Cup Winners Cup semi-final against Liverpool at Anfield . It is now sung by Celtic fans prior to every home European tie . The song has also been adopted by Dutch team Feyenoord, SC Cambuur, Germany's Borussia Dortmund, 1 . FSV Mainz 05, TSV 1860 Munich, Japan's F.C. Tokyo, Spain's CD Lugo . the Marist St. Pats MSP 80 / 80 Blues, and Bali United . In ice hockey, the song has been adopted by German Deutsche Eishockey Liga side Krefeld Pinguine and Croatian Medveščak Zagreb . </P> <P> A special recording of the song was made in solidarity with Bradford City following the Valley Parade fire in 1985, when 56 spectators died and many more were seriously injured . The song was performed by The Crowd, which was a supergroup featuring Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney and others, and spent two weeks at number - one in the UK . </P>

When did celtic fans start singing you'll never walk alone