Remembrance in Spacetime: § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: God Bless America

Saturday, July 4, 2009

§ I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: God Bless America

Posted by TheBigHenry at 12:57 PM Labels: American cultural literacy, Greatest Songs of Millennium II, Remembrance

{Song #18 « Song #19 » Song #20}

§ ≡ One of an ongoing series of posts in which I pick, in my not-so-humble opinion, the best songs of the second millennium. Feel free to offer constructive dissenting opinions; preferably set to music.

Song #19 is God Bless America, sung by Kate Smith.

"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). "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 of The Star-Spangled Banner.

I first heard this, my favorite patriotic song, sung on the radio by Kate Smith almost 60 years ago when I came to America as a 7-year-old boy.

Kate Smith Sings God Bless America

UPDATE: For a timely, twangy song by the Coal Miner’s Daughter and a Truck Drivin’ Man: God Bless America… Again at mon ami's Apostate family site in the sweet ol’ Mississippi Delta.

Post #827 § I Am Music and I Pick the Songs: God Bless America

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