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Gerry and the Pacemakers were a British beat music group prominent during the 1960s. In common with the Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein and recorded by George Martin.
They are most remembered for being the first act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their first three single releases.[2] This record was not equalled for 20 years,until the mid-1980s success of fellow Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Gerry Marsden formed the group in 1959 with his brother, Fred, Les Chadwick and Arthur McMahon. They rivalled the Beatles early in their career, playing in the same areas of Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool.[1] McMahon (known as Arthur Mack) was replaced on piano by Les Maguire around 1961.[1] They are known to have rehearsed at Cammell Laird shipping yard at Birkenhead. The group's original name was Gerry Marsden and the Mars Bars,[3] but they were forced to change this, when the Mars Company, producers of the chocolate Mars Bar, complained.[4]
The band was the second to sign with Brian Epstein, who later signed them with Columbia Records (a sister label to the Beatles' label Parlophone under EMI).[1] They began recording in early 1963 with "How Do You Do It?", a song written by Mitch Murray, that Adam Faith had turned down and one that the Beatles chose not to release (they did record the song but insisted on releasing their own song, "Please Please Me").[5] The song was produced by George Martin and became a number one hit in the UK, the first by an Epstein Liverpool group to achieve this on all charts, until being replaced at the top by "From Me to You", the Beatles' third single.[6]
Gerry and the Pacemakers' next two singles, Murray's "I Like It" and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone", both also reached number one in the UK Singles Chart,[7] the latter recorded instead of the Beatles' "Hello Little Girl", which went on to become the first hit for the Fourmost. "You'll Never Walk Alone" had been a favourite of Gerry Marsden's since seeing Carousel growing up. It soon became the signature tune of Liverpool Football Club. To this day, the song remains a football anthem, there and elsewhere, a phenomenon due to Gerry Marsden, rather than its Broadway composers