God Bless America

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I shamelessly stole this from another forum I visit. Tim in Kansas is to be thanked for the information. Here is his post and if you are like me, it may teach you something and cause you to get goose bumps or a knot in your throat or a tear in your eye. Thanks again Tim.


Default God Bless America
The link below will take you to a video showing the very first public singing of "GOD BLESS AMERICA". But before you watch, you should also know the story of the song.
The year was 1940. America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe, and Americans were afraid we'd have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.
This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers, and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith.
Kate was also large in size, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, "Ain't over till the fat lady sings."
Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time. Kate was also very patriotic. It hurt her to see Americans
so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring. She had hope for America, and faith in her fellow Americans, and wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (who also wrote "White Christmas") and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country.
When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her. He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 22 years before...way back in 1917. He gave it to Kate Smith and she worked on it with her studio orchestra. She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from God Bless America. Any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America.
Over the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.

This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing. After the first couple verses, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, "You're In The Army Now."
At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper, it's Ronald Reagan. Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said when he and a million other guys first heard her sing "God Bless America" on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their eyes as they wiped away a tear or two.

To this day, God Bless America stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country. Back in 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt she realized
just how successful the results would be for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry, and for many generations of Americans to follow.
Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you will enjoy it and treasure it even more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?feature=player_embedded&v=TnQDW-NMaRs#
 
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That was great. I really got the chills all over when she sang God Bless America. It seems like patriotism has lost its way in our country. Shameful!
I always enjoyed listening to her. Another of her songs I enjoyed was "When the Moon Comes over the Mountain".
 
it may teach you something

Jonathan,

Nice post, and a good day to remind us of that song. But I'm afraid Tim in Kansas snagged it from somewhere else (a quick google search returns 31,000 results), and whoever wrote it first may have been just a tad wide of the mark... ;)

Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918. He snagged the melody from a much older yiddish song, "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band." He did revise it in 1938, because he was worried it was too right wing (he changed "to the right" to "through the night") but the revisions were minor. Kate Smith sang it on her show in 1938.

Fun fact: the song was the impetus for "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie thought Berlin's song was a little complacent, and wrote his anthem as an answer.

Happy 4TH!

Best,

Bill
 
Happy 4th of July all, great song that Jonathan and Bill thanks for correcting the record I appreciate it because it keeps reminding us to check the facts.

Al I am sorry to disagree with you, but i think Patriotism is alive and well and living in the USA. From what i saw traveling the country and shopping in country stores and seeing folks houses in NY state countryside, the banners flags and patriotism was on show for all to see and you did not have to look.

Heck i even found myself singing this song while driving through the corn fields.

In addition during BW i just met Jim Burr, heard a few of his storys from the field and on this day when you think of patriotism think of the numbers of men and woman who sign up for the various branches of the services and ask yourself again if you think patriotism is fading. You guys have never been wanting of people when they were needed to defend the homeland and that with a volunteer force.

Were I American, I would be very proud, I am proud as a neighbor to know you all, I honestly get upset when i see how you guys let the media make you feel bad about yourselves. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world would be living in one heck of a worse situation than they do today were it not for your great nation.

Sure its not perfect but then neither are any of us. But it beats what dictators and tyrants have had to offer elsewhere.

Be proud of who and what you are and what you stand for America and enjoy your independence day i know i will when i watch PBS tonight :)

BTW i prefer the Willy Nelson version of God Bless America. :) I am kinda a country boy.
 
That lady had a set of pipes! I remember listening to her as a kid. Still gives me goosebumps.

Yes Carol she had "a set of pipes!" She had a beautiful voice. I am so sorry that the recording quality was so poor. Her voice raised goose bumps and what she did for that song was unbeatable.

It seemed like everyone was singing that song---even people like me who cannot carry a tune. What an "upper."

Enjoy,
JimB
 
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