| “God Bless America” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Song | ||
| Published | 1918, 1938 (revised) | |
| Genre | Patriotic | |
| Writer | Irving Berlin | |
| Composer | Irving Berlin | |
"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song originally written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938, as sung by Kate Smith (becoming her signature song). A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country A songwriter is someone who writes the Lyrics to songs the Musical composition (chords or Melody to songs or both Irving Berlin (11 May 1888 &ndash 22 September 1989 was a Russian-born American Composer and Lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriters A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance Irving Berlin (11 May 1888 &ndash 22 September 1989 was a Russian-born American Composer and Lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriters The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country Irving Berlin (11 May 1888 &ndash 22 September 1989 was a Russian-born American Composer and Lyricist, and one of the most prolific American songwriters Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith ( May 1, 1907 &ndash June 17, 1986) was an American Singer, best known for her rendition A signature song is the one Song (or in some cases one of a few songs that a popular and well-established It is sometimes considered an unofficial national anthem of the United States. A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history traditions and struggles of its people recognized either by a nation's [1] The song served as the inspiration for another anthem, Woodie Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", which was written in response to it. Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14 1912–October 3 1967 was an American Singer-songwriter and Folk musician Guthrie's musical legacy " This Land Is Your Land " is one of the United States ' most famous folk songs.
"God Bless America" is similar in format and lyrics to many other contemporary national anthems. It is popular as a "modern" national anthem because of its memorable words and tune, as opposed to the rather complex music and abstract lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner. " The Star-Spangled Banner " is the National anthem of the United States of America "God Bless America" takes the form of a prayer (intro lyrics "as we raise our voices, in a solemn prayer") for God's blessing and peace for the nation (". Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate with a Deity or spirit . . stand beside her and guide her through the night. . . ").
Contents |
History
Berlin originally wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. Camp Upton was an installation of the United States Army located in Yaphank on Long Island in Suffolk County New York. Yaphank is a hamlet (and Census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. From idea to the stage The commanding officer at Camp Upton had wanted to build a community building on the grounds of the army base and thought that Sgt The lyrics at that time included the line, "Make her victorious on land and foam, God bless America. . . "[1], as well as "Stand beside her and guide her, to the right with the light from above. "
Music critic Jody Rosen comments 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. '" He interprets this as an example of Berlin's "habit of interpolating bits of half-remembered songs into his own numbers. " [2] Berlin, born Israel Baline, had himself written several Jewish-themed novelty tunes.
In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was a Jewish immigrant from Siberia, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song", and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938 sung by Kate Smith, on her radio show. Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Armistice Day is the anniversary of the symbolic end of World War I on 11 November, 1918. Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith ( May 1, 1907 &ndash June 17, 1986) was an American Singer, best known for her rendition [2] Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call for fascism or, at the very least, political conservatism, so he substituted "through the night" instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard: "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. "
More than just the dramatic words and melody, the arrangement for Kate Smith's performance was accompanied by full band, progressing into a grand march tempo, with trumpets triple re-inforcing the harmonies between stanzas: the dramatic build-up ends on the final exposed high note, which Kate Smith sang in the solo as a sustained a cappella note, with the band then joining for the finale. A cappella (Italian or Latin "From the chapel/choir" Music is Vocal music or Singing without instrumental Accompaniment
The song was a hit; there was even a movement to make "God Bless America" the national anthem of the United States. A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history traditions and struggles of its people recognized either by a nation's In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical This Is the Army along with other Berlin songs. This Is the Army is a 1943 American Motion picture produced by Hal B Manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace. The Library of Congress is the De facto National library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress Berlin gave the royalties of the song to the God Bless America Fund for redistribution to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of the USA. The Boy Scouts of America ( BSA) is the largest youth organization in the United States with over five million The Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA is a Youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad
Woody Guthrie disliked the song, and wrote "This Land Is Your Land," originally titled "God Blessed America For Me," as a response to "God Bless America. Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14 1912–October 3 1967 was an American Singer-songwriter and Folk musician Guthrie's musical legacy " This Land Is Your Land " is one of the United States ' most famous folk songs. " "This Land Is Your Land" has also often been proposed as a United States national anthem. " This Land Is Your Land " is one of the United States ' most famous folk songs.
Later, from December 11, 1969[2] through the early 1970s, Smith's recording of the song before many of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers professional ice hockey home games brought it renewed popularity (as well as being an apparent "good luck charm" to the Flyers),[2] long before it became a nationwide sporting event staple. The National Hockey League ( NHL) is a professional Ice hockey league composed of 30 teams in North America The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional Ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [2] The Flyers even brought Smith in to sing "live" before the final game of Stanley Cup Playoffs in the spring of 1974, and the Flyers won the cup that day. The Stanley Cup (La Coupe Stanley is an Ice hockey club championship Trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL playoffs champion [2] [3]
To honor the start of the United States Bicentennial, Kate Smith sang "God Bless America" to a national television audience, accompanied by the UCLA Band at the 1976 Rose Bowl. The United States Bicentennial was celebrated on Sunday July 4, 1976, the 200th Anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence The 250 member UCLA Bruin Marching Band, known as The Solid Gold Sound, represents the University at major athletic and extracurricular events The 1976 Rose Bowl was a College football Bowl game played on January 1 1976
The song was sung by the main characters, to a chilling ironic effect, in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter. Michael Cimino (ˈtʃamɪnəʊ born February 3, 1939, New York City) is an American, Academy Award-winning film director The Deer Hunter is a 1978 war Drama film about a trio of Rusyn American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Regarding the song in the film, Roger Ebert says in his 1978 review: "It [the film] ends on a curious note: The singing of 'God Bless America'. Roger Joseph Ebert (iːbɝt born June 18, 1942) is an American film critic and Screenwriter. I won't tell you how it arrives at that particular moment. . . but I do want to observe that the lyrics of 'God Bless America' have never before seemed to me to contain such an infinity of possible meanings, some tragic, some unspeakeably sad, some few still defiantly hopeful, and some uneffeciently portrayed. "
The song is also prominently featured in the film Once Upon a Time in America, as it is played during a murder in the beginning of the picture. Once Upon a Time in America (Italian title C'era una volta in America) is a 1984 Crime film directed by Sergio Leone
"God Bless America" is often sung at sporting events, recitals, and other public events where national anthems are sung, sometimes in place of "The Star-Spangled Banner. " The Star-Spangled Banner " is the National anthem of the United States of America "
Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, "God Bless America" has commonly been sung during the seventh-inning stretch in Sunday Major League Baseball games, except for the Toronto Blue Jays and prior to 2005, when they moved to Washington, the Montreal Expos. The seventh-inning stretch is a tradition in Baseball that takes place between the halves of the seventh Inning of any game The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Franchise history Creation of the franchise In 1960 Montreal lost its International League team the Montreal Royals (an affiliate of Yankee Stadium is the only Major League ballpark to play "God Bless America" every game during the seventh-inning stretch. The original Yankee Stadium is a Stadium located in The Bronx in New York City. The team's YES Network televises its performance during each game before going to commercial. The Yankees Entertainment and Sports (YES Network is a New York City regional Cable TV channel dedicated to broadcasting Baseball games of the Interestingly, some claim this offers a competitive advantage to the Yankees. This is due to the fact that at Yankee Stadium, Ronan Tynan sings an especially long version of the song at select (including all playoff) games, during which time the opposing pitcher is unable to warm up. Ronan Tynan (born May 14, 1960, in Dublin, Ireland) is a popular Tenor, singing in the classical Irish style Some pitchers have complained that this affects their rhythm, and it has been notoriously known for inciting some of them to sing "God Damn America".
At Wrigley Field, during the Vietnam War, the song was often played by the organist as part of his post-game playlist, while fans filed out of the stadium. Wrigley Field is a Baseball Stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
Notable versions
| “God Bless America” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| Single by Céline Dion from the album God Bless America | |||||
| Released | September 24, 2001 | ||||
| Format | Radio single | ||||
| Genre | Pop | ||||
| Length | 3:47 | ||||
| Label | Columbia, Epic | ||||
| Writer(s) | Irving Berlin | ||||
| Producer | David Foster | ||||
| Céline Dion singles chronology | |||||
| |||||
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Canadian pop star Céline Dion performed the song on the TV special America: A Tribute to Heroes. Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( OC OQ (born March 30 1968 in Charlemagne Quebec) is a Canadian pop Singer America A Tribute to Heroes was a Benefit concert organized by actor George Clooney and broadcast Shortly afterwards on October 16, Sony Music Entertainment released a benefit album called God Bless America, which featured Dion singing the song. Events 456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Sony Music Entertainment is a major global Record label controlled by the Sony Corporation of America, being one of the "big four" record companies 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. The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa was the name under which forty-five predominantly U " We Are the World " is a 1985 song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced and conducted by Quincy Jones and recorded Céline Dion's version also received enough radio airplay to reach #14 on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart (formerly known as Adult Contemporary Singles, Easy Listening, and only Adult Contemporary) lists the most popular
The music video was made and aired in September 2001.
Dion performed the song also few times during 2002, including the Super Bowl. professional American football, the Super Bowl is the Championship game of the National Football League (NFL She sang it on July 4, 2004 in her A New Day... show as well. Events 836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " A New Day was a highly successful show performed by Céline Dion at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
"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, on America: A Tribute to Heroes, is from the telethon event of the same name that took place on September 21, 2001. Events 1217 - The Estonian tribal leader Lembitu of Lehola was killed in a battle against Teutonic Knights. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. The studio version is on the God Bless America album, a patriotic songs CD. It was recorded on September 20, 2001, the day before the American telethon. Events 451 - The Battle of Chalons takes place in North Eastern France. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. It was meant to be a replacement for the performance in the event something happened and Dion couldn’t appear.
The song was also recorded by New York City's "singing cop," Daniel Rodriguez, and charted for one week at #99 on the Billboard Hot 100 as a single. Daniel Rodriguez (born May 24 1964 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American operatic Tenor from New York City. Before the 2001 versions, the last time "God Bless America" had been a Billboard chart hit was in 1959, when Connie Francis reached #36 with her version (the B-side of her Top 10 hit "Among My Souvenirs"). Connie Francis (born December 12, 1938 in Newark New Jersey) is an American Pop singer best known for international hit songs
The song has spawned numerous parodies. An irreverent version of the lyrics was printed in the book The MAD World of William M. Gaines, by Frank Jacobs (1972). William Maxwell Gaines ( March 1, 1922 &ndash June 3, 1992) (more frequently referred to as Bill Gaines) was the publisher and co-editor Frank Jacobs is an American satire writer known primarily for his work in ''Mad'', to which he has contributed since 1957 The 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. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming Putnam obliged, and rewrote the copy, and sent it back with this enclosure:
DON'T BREAK "AMERICA"
Don't break "America";
Land we extol;
Don't deface it;
Upper-case it;
Keep it clean, keep it pure, keep it whole;
In Bodoni, in Futura,
In Old English, in Cabell--
Don't break "America"--
Or we'll--raise--hell!
A version called God Bless My Underwear is popular with schoolchildren at summer camps. Bodoni is the name given to a series of serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813 in 1798 "I am an Anglican" is sung as an Episcopal church camp song. A midwestern version refers to Lutherans, a mid-Atlantic one to Presbyterians . God Bless America spawned another of Irving Berlin's tunes, "Heaven Watch The Philippines", during the end of World War II, after he heard the Filipinos sang a slightly revised version of the song replacing "America" with "The Philippines".
"God Bless America!"
An earlier and much more obscure song called "God Bless America!" was written by Robert Montgomery Bird and published in 1834. Robert Montgomery Bird (February 5 1806 - 1854 was an American Novelist, Playwright, Photographer, and Physician. Events Statue of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is erected in his birthplace of Geneva. Sheet music for this version is available online from the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is the De facto National library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress The lyrics begin:
God bless the land that gave us birth!
No pray'r but this know we.
God bless the land, of all the earth,
The happy and the free.
And where's the land like ours can brave
The splendor of the day.
And find no son of hers a slave?
God bless America!
God bless the land, the land beloved
Forever and for aye!
God bless the land that gave us birth.
God bless America!
External links
- Library of Congress page with more information, pictures of manuscript, etc. A manuscript is any Document that is Written by hand as opposed to being printed or reproduced in some other way
- A songs site with a page about "God Bless America".
References
- ^ God Bless America. Library of Congress (2007-11-18). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 326 - The old St Peter's Basilica is consecrated 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull
- ^ a b c d e "Flyers History - Kate Smith" FlyersHistory. com, 2007, webpage: FHistory-Kate.
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