Kate Smith Sings God Bless America, 1930s- By Irving Berlin in 1918

"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938, as sung by Kate Smith (becoming her signature song).
"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 ("...stand beside her and guide her through the night...").
Berlin originally wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York.
In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish, and a first-generation European immigrant, 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.
Traditional lyrics

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.
God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.
"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".
September 11
During a live television broadcast on the evening of the September 11 attacks, following addresses by then-House and Senate leaders Dennis Hastert and Tom Daschle, members of the United States Congress broke out into an apparently spontaneous verse of "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
Single by Céline Dion
from the album God Bless America
Released October 24, 2001
Format Radio single
Genre Pop
Length 3:47
Label Columbia, Epic
Writer(s) Irving Berlin
Producer David Foster
The song was a hit; there was even a movement to make "God Bless America" the national anthem of the United States. In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical This Is the Army along with other Berlin songs. Manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace. 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.

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• 1930s

[BeantownJim]

Semper Fi

[kilotrotylu]

where are indians ?

[Wunder50]

Haha-haaa ! u libs r so funny

[MrChesterino]

wow its so old

[RiseofMarine]

If our current president indeed has a spine and lets the Bush tax cuts expire our debt might start to become something resembling manageable.

[NationalApostasy]

What a different nation we were in 1948! Most American's still understood what liberty meant. Now we just had a president (Bush) who declared that our Constitution's just a damned piece of paper, and we now have a president and congress who are spending us into oblivion, 5 billion more a day than we are taking in. Fiscal insanity! The papacy and the Christian Right are tearing down the wall of separation between church and state, liberty of conscience is no longer respected.