Happy 50th Birthday to Chelsea anthem ‘Blue Is The Colour’!

On March 4, 1972, Dave “For God” Sexton’s Chelsea took on Stoke City in the League Cup final. To commemorate the occasion — as well as our cup successes leading up to it, including the 1971 Cup Winners’ Cup victory against Real Madrid — it was decided that a special musical album should be commissioned, with the players themselves singing various songs. Apparently that was a thing back in those days.

One of the ten tracks on the record — for the kids in the audience, a record is a flat circular piece of plastic with grooves, which are essentially physical representations of sound waves that could be played back with a needle and a diaphragm, more commonly known as a turntable these days — was a little ditty called “Blue is the Colour”.

You might be familiar with that one even today. And if not, you very well should be.

(Chorus)
Blue is the colour, football is the game
We’re all together, and winning is our aim
So cheer us on through the sun and rain
’cause Chelsea, Chelsea is our name

(Verse 1)
Here at the Bridge whether rain or fine
We can shine all the time
Home or away, come and see us play
You’re welcome any day

(Chorus x1)

(Verse 2)
Come to the Shed and we’ll welcome you
Wear your blue and see us through
Sing loud and clear until the game is done
Sing Chelsea everyone

(Chorus x2)

Either way, there’s a lovely write-up on the Chelsea official website of how the club anthem came to be, and here’s a video from British Pathé that gets the year and the occasion wrong in the description, but is still cool to watch.

(P.S. Chelsea lost the ‘72 League Cup final, 2-1. Fortunately, the anthem has been witness to many more great nights since.)