One Song, Two Wars, and an Enduring American Anthem: The Story Behind 'God Bless America'

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By Bob Hoge

Like Christmas, Independence Day is famous for its songs. 

There are so many of them that bring home the patriotism of the holiday, our gratitude for our forefathers for creating a more perfect union, and our love of America. Think, the Star‑Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A., and lately, during the World Cup, John Denver’s Country Roads.

Of course, one of those patriotic favorites is God Bless America, and it’s still sung by the massive crowds across the country.

But when was it first performed, and who wrote it?

Although the first public performance was in 1938 to celebrate Armistice Day (the end of World War I), the story actually goes back to 1918 and “The Dean of American Songwriters,” the great Irving Berlin. He’d written the tune 20 years earlier, but it wasn’t until 1938 that a revised version was sung publicly:

November 9, 1938

In [a] remarkable letter, songwriter Irving Berlin writes to fellow composer Harry Ruby on the eve of “God Bless America’s” reintroduction to the world. The timing is chilling as the letter was written on the eve of the Kristallnacht program (Nov. 9–10, 1938) in Nazi Germany. Berlin reveals that Kate Smith will sing it the next night on national radio—reviving a forgotten WWI-era tune that would become a defining American anthem. This letter, written just one day before Smith's Armistice Day broadcast, captures the quiet beginnings of what would become one of the most patriotic songs in U.S. history.

Hat tip to my friend and California state senate candidate for the 22nd district, Mike Netter, for sharing the following post.

Although technically the very first rendition by Smith was for radio in 1938, she reprised it for the 1943 Warner Bros. film "This Is the Army," where she performed it with a large orchestra and choir. See if you can spot a legendary former president and even the songwriter himself in the clip:

The song became an immediate classic:

This simple one-verse song became an overnight hit, and a hopeful song as war threatened. “It’s not a patriotic song,” composer Irving Berlin said in a 1940 interview, “but an expression of gratitude for what this country has done for its citizens, of what home really means.” Today, many Americans consider “God Bless America” an unofficial national anthem of the United States.

For decades, you used to hear Smith’s version at New York Yankees and Philadelphia Flyers games, but the Left always wants to make sure you can’t have nice things, so in 2019, they dragged up other songs that she had sung nearly a century ago and got her canceled. The two teams no longer play her voice because some of the tunes were deemed to be racist.

Critics of cancel culture struck back, noting that Smith recorded one of the controversial “racist” songs with an African American man, and it was meant to be satirical, not hateful. Meanwhile, she didn’t exactly sound like your average KKK Grand Wizard in an interview:

Smith called for racial tolerance in 1945 in an address on CBS Radio, declaring, "Race hatreds, social prejudices, religious bigotry, they are the diseases that eat away the fibers of peace". She went on to state "it is up to us to tolerate one another in order to achieve peace".

In any case, you won’t hear her anymore at Yankees or Flyers games.

The Left is always trying to erase our history, but the problem for them is that they can’t. We’ve got the documents, we’ve got the videotapes, we’ve got the contemporaneous news stories. I hope you enjoyed Smith’s rendition. 

Now fire up those grills, display your American flags, and let the world know that you are a loud and proud American who will not be erased.

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