"God Bless America", also known as "God Save America", stands as an iconic American patriotic song. Penned by Irving Berlin during World War I in 1918, it was later revised in 1938, leading up to World War II.
Sheet music for "God Bless America".
Origins and Evolution
Irving Berlin, then an Army sergeant, initially wrote this song in 1918 while preparing a military musical revue entitled Yip Yip Yaphank. However, he felt the song did not fit the needs of the show and put it aside. Born Israel Isidore Baline, Berlin, who immigrated from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song." The manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace.
Music critic Jody Rosen suggests that a 1906 Jewish dialect novelty song, "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band," contains a six-note fragment that is "instantly recognizable as the opening strains of 'God Bless America'".
Debut and Popularity
The song was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show and this song has become the performer's calling card. By this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted "through the night" instead. Smith performed the song on her two NBC television series in the 1950s.
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In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical film This is the Army along with other Berlin songs.
| Year | Event | Performer |
|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Armistice Day Broadcast | Kate Smith |
| 1943 | Film "This is the Army" | Kate Smith |
| 2001 | America: A Tribute to Heroes | Celine Dion |
| 2003 | Super Bowl XXXVII | Celine Dion |
Use in Politics and Sports
In 1940, "God Bless America" was the official campaign song for both President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie. "God Bless America" has been performed at home games of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers and those of the Ottawa Senators in which the visiting team is from the United States.
At some Flyers' home games, especially during big games and the playoffs, their main anthem singer, Lauren Hart, has sung "God Bless America" alternating lyrics with Kate Smith on a video screen, until 2019. Smith actually appeared in person to sing at select Flyers games, including their 1974 Stanley Cup clinching game against the Boston Bruins, to which she received a thunderous ovation from the passionate Philadelphia fans. Before games whenever "God Bless America" is performed until 2019, Lou Nolan, the PA announcer for the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center, would say: "Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we ask that you please rise and remove your hats and salute to our flags and welcome the No.
During Tom Golisano's time as owner of the Buffalo Sabres, the team occasionally substituted "God Bless America" for "The Star-Spangled Banner" during certain special events.
Kate Smith singing "God Bless America".
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Post-9/11 Era
Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "God Bless America" is commonly sung during the seventh-inning stretch in Major League Baseball games, most often on Sundays, Opening Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, All-Star Game, Labor Day, September 11, and most post-season Major League Baseball games including the World Series. Following the attacks, John Dever, then the Assistant Media Relations Director of the San Diego Padres, suggested the song replace "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", the more traditional 7th inning anthem.
Major League Baseball quickly followed the Padres lead and instituted it league-wide for the rest of the season. The New York Yankees, at Yankee Stadium home games, is currently the only Major League club to play "God Bless America" at every game during the seventh-inning stretch. The Yankees' YES Network televises its performance during all games before going to a commercial.
The Indianapolis 500 is traditionally held at the end of May, and "God Bless America" has been sung there since 2003. The song "America the Beautiful" was sung before, but it was switched to "God Bless America" in the post-9/11 era. The song for many years was performed by Florence Henderson, a native Hoosier, and a friend of the Hulman-George family, the track's owners at the time. The performance, often not televised, immediately precedes the national anthem.
God Bless America - Story Behind the Song
Controversies and Protests
On August 26, 2008, at a Boston Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium, a fan who had attempted to leave for the restroom during the playing of the song was restrained and subsequently sent out of the building by NYPD officers. On September 15, 2009, three high school teens filed a lawsuit against New Jersey's minor league Newark Bears for being ejected from Eagles Riverfront Stadium over their refusal to stand during the playing of "God Bless America" on June 29, 2009.
Notable Performances and Recordings
The song was recorded by New York City's "singing cop," Daniel Rodríguez, and charted for one week at No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 as a single. Before the 2001 versions, the last time "God Bless America" had been a Billboard chart hit was in 1959 when Connie Francis reached No. On January 20, 2017, Jackie Evancho released Together We Stand, a disc containing three patriotic songs including "God Bless America". The song charted at No.
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On September 21, 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Canadian singer Celine Dion performed "God Bless America" during the television special America: A Tribute to Heroes. Shortly afterwards on October 16, 2001 Sony Music released a benefit album called God Bless America, which featured Dion singing the song. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became the first charity album to reach the top since USA for Africa's We Are the World in 1985. Dion performed the song also a few times during 2002.
In 2003, she performed it at Super Bowl XXXVII. She also sang it on July 4, 2004, in her A New Day... show. "God Bless America" performed by Dion exists in two versions, live and studio. Both included on collections to gather funds for the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their families. The live version was released on America: A Tribute to Heroes CD and DVD on December 4, 2001. The studio version was released on the God Bless America album. The song was recorded on September 20, 2001, the day before the telethon. It was meant to be a replacement for the performance in the event something happened and Dion could not appear.
In 1997, American country music recording artist LeAnn Rimes recorded a cover of the song on her second studio album, You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs. After the events of September 11, Rimes rereleased the song on a compilation album by the same name. Rimes also released the song on a CD single.
Two versions were released on October 16, 2001. Both versions contain the song as the A-side track, but the B-side tracks were different. One released to the general public was released with the B-side track, "Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart," and the other was released to radio with the B-side track of Rimes's rendition of "The National Anthem." Rimes's version peaked at No.
Cultural References
An irreverent version of the lyrics was printed in the book The Mad World of William M. Gaines, by Frank Jacobs (1972). Mad magazine's veteran art editor, John Putnam, had prepared some copy and sent it to the printers; the word "America" was divided, with a hyphen, at the end of one line. The copy was returned to Putnam by the typesetting foreman, who explained that his union had a rule forbidding the splitting of that word.
In "Temporarily Humboldt County" on The Firesign Theatre's first album Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him (1968), a group of Native American men briefly and ironically sing "God bless Vespucciland..." to the tune of "God Bless America" as they fade off into the distance. In the title track of their 1969 album How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, The Firesign Theatre briefly break into lines based on the song: "Ask the postman.
God Bless America, a 2011 film written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, is a dark comedy that satirizes the present-day American values.
