Lyr/Tune Req: God Bless America

Subject: lyrics/music : God Bless America
From: Dale Rose
Date: 21 Aug 97 - 11:02 AM

I am looking for the complete lyrics, music, and history for Irving Berlin's God Bless America. So far, all I have found is that he wrote it in 1918, but it was not recorded until Kate Smith did it in 1938. Apparently the Williamson Music Company in New York owns the copyright. The only version I have found so far has just 6 lines, with some lines repeated to make a total of 10. It seems that there surely ought to be more than that.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From:
Date: 21 Aug 97 - 12:26 PM

White with foam

Subject: Lyr Add: GOD BLESS AMERICA (Irving Berlin)^^
From: Gene
Date: 21 Aug 97 - 02:19 PM

Found these on an old album with Mitch Miller.

God Bless America
(Irving Berlin, ©1939)

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.^^

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Aug 97 - 03:09 PM

I found out somewhere that Irving Berlin wrote the song for the 1918 soldier revue "Yip, Yip, Yaphank" but deleted it from the show and shelved it until 1938 when it was recorded by Kate Smith.

Here's a summary of what's in Max Wilk's "They're Playing Our Song":
He wrote the show in 1918, when he was a new draftee at Camp Upton, also known as Camp Yaphank. Irving Berlin was a pretty savvy GI. Writing the show got him excused from other duties. One of the songs from the show was "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" - but Berlin was excused from getting up early, too.
Apparently, he and others decided the show had enough patriotic songs, so "God Bless America" got cut. Berlin held onto the song until 1938, when he had Kate Smith introduce it on the radio. With war brewing in Europe, the song was an instant hit. He assigned the profits to the Girl Scouts (and Boy Scouts).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Dale
Date: 24 Aug 97 - 07:39 PM

Thanks, Gene and Joe. Your information has been useful. It is beginning to look like there are no other words. . .

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Teru
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 03:11 AM

Does anyone know why God Bless America is sometimes included in "Irish American songs"?

I don't think Irving Berlin was of Irish background.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Genie
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 03:23 AM

DK, Teru.

Joe O., I thought it was the Boy Scouts who got the royalties for GBA. No?

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Teru
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:43 AM

Genie:

I am wondering that's why Irving Berlin was an immigrant, and his religion was Roman Catholic.

I may guess wrong...

With regards

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:04 AM

Israel Baline was born on May 11, 1888 in Temoyun, Kirgizia, Russia, and went to America in 1893. In 1907, he changed his name to Irving Berlin. See these pages:

The Americanization of Irving Berlin by Stefan Kanfer.

The Mid-Atlantic Submariner On-Line: God Bless America

~Masato

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: GUEST,someone
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 01:01 PM

heres the first of the chorus: God bless america where i at least i know i am free

---

Click for Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA"

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Genie
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 04:11 PM

Guest, someone, I think you're thinking of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" ("I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free...").

Teru, Irving Berlin was a Jew and, as Masato pointed out, an immigrant from Russia. His second wife, Ellen, was Catholic. I have no idea why GBA would be considered an "Irish American song."

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Genie
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 04:24 PM

Er, ..., that's "Ellin," not "Ellen."

The royalties go to both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:25 PM

Off topic I know, but Teru, I am so pleased to see you here again after such a long absence. Your presence at Mudcat makes it a better place.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Genie
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 10:00 PM

Also, Teru, (from the first article linked to by Masato), Irving and Ellin Berlin raised their 3 daughters as protestants. The article says that "patriotism was his religion."

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Genie
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:09 PM

I could swear that somewhere in the forum someone posted the chords to the verse of GBA, but I've searched in the Filter and in the DT/Forum search for the phrase "God Bless" and so far have been unable to find it. I sing the verse, but the way I sing it, it requires a my full vocal range, and I think I'm doing something to the last two musical lines of the verse that makes it go higher than necessary. Anyone have the chords to the verse? (I can post the chords to the chorus, if anyone needs them.)

Do any of you folks know what thread those chords are in? If not, does someone have the chords to the verse handy?

Thanks,

Genie

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Alice
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:33 PM

Check out the NPR radio web site. There was a program on "Fresh Air" last November about the songbook THE COMPLETE LYRICS OF IRVING BERLIN. Irving Berlin's daughter assited in compiling it. Published by Knopf.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Alice
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:36 PM

You can listen to the archived Fresh Air program on Real Audio. It starts with Berlin singing God Bless America.
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/segment_display.cfm?segID=132444

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Genie
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 12:46 AM

Thanks, Alice. Somewhere I have a videotape of the whole song (from the PBS broadcast "A Capitol Fourth" from a few years back). If I hear the tune for the verse again, I can figure out the chords. Or vice-versa.

Still, the words and chords are here in the Forum, if I can just remember what the thread was.

Genie

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Teru
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 06:51 AM

GUEST,Dale :

Thank you very much for remembering me.

Genie:

Oh, his daughters were protestants!

Mmmmmmmm.

My question is sometimes so simple that it may be difficult to get a definite answer.

Anyway, I have never forgotten this forum.

With my best wishes

Teru from Japan

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: GUEST,finn mann
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 10:28 AM

I'm surprised that nobody has digressed to mention that Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land was written as a riposte to God Bless America which he found offensive

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Alice
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 12:23 PM

Very nice to "see" you here again, Teru. I always remember our discussion about taishokoto.

Alice

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Alice
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 12:40 PM

Teru - I meant to say the Irish Emigrant thread, too.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Genie
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 01:16 PM

Finn mann, re what you said about Woody and TLIYL,

A couple of folks, including me, have mentioned this in previous threads that discussed "patriotic songs" or GBA in particular.

click here

and here

Genie

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: GUEST,Phantomcats5
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 08:15 AM

Yes, the song was written by Irving Berlin and shelved until 1938. The first verse is not sung but spoken. He needed a patriotic song for the times and remembered God Bless America. Kate Smith sang it.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: masato sakurai
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 12:34 PM

From: James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, 4th ed. (Dover, pp. 248, 677-678).

mw. Irving Berlin. Published Feb. 20, 1939, by lrving Berlin, Inc., 799 Seventh Ave., New York, N.Y. First edition: Front cover states: "First Performance by Kate Smith Armistice Day, 1938," mentions three keys at the top, Medium in F being the copyrighted key, and is pink, purple and white. p. [2] has poem. m. on pp. 3-5. The top of p. 3 repeats the references to Kate Smith and the key. Back cover mentions arrangements of the song for Voice and Piano in 3 keys, Concert Orchestra, Women's Voices, Group Singing, Mixed Voices, Men's Voices, Band, Children's edition--1st and 2nd Grades, followed by a three-line imprint. LC(CDC) and JF (two copies inscribed, one by lrving Berlin and the other by Kate Smith).
Although the chorus of the song had been written in 1918, it was not copyrighted or published until an unpublished copy was deposited on Oct. 27, 1938.‡
The phrase "God Bless America" has been used frequently as the title of a song, the earliest known being before 1800. A broadside of the words (only) of a song General Washington's Birth-Day "to be sung to the tune of Cod Bless America" was printed before his death in 1799. No printing of the music or words of this God Bless America has been found, nor has the music of General Washington's Birth-Day; but the meter of the words of General Washington's Birth-Day exactly fits the music of God Save the King, as do the opening words "God Bless America." The author [J. Fuld] has seen this broadside (n.p., n.d.), and it is described in Charles Hamilton's Auction Catalogue, New York. N.Y., Dec. 12, 1968, no. 284 (extract from Catalogue at JF), but the present owner of the broadside is not known. Another song entitled God Bless America, with music and words by Robert M. Bird, was copyrighted May 17, 1834, by Fiot, Philadelphia; LC(CDC). In 1917, the year before Berlin wrote his song, there were two songs copyrighted under this title, one by E. Manning and the other with music by Reginald De Koven (the latter at UTS).
Manuscripts of the words of Berlin's song are at LC and JF.†

† Royalties from God Bless America to 1978 totaled $673,939, all to the benefit of the boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
‡ For the first performance by Kate Smith mentioned above, a copyist at lrving Berlin Inc. wrote out on music pages the music and words of the song. These music pages contained a partial second set of words beginning with the pick-up at the end of the 16th bar of the Chorus and continuing until the 24th bar:

"From the green fields in Virginia
To the gold fields out in Nome"

These words were crossed out in pencil, however, and it is believed that they were never sung, known or printed before. These music pages also contained an introduction or "Voice" to the song. One phrase in the introduction in the music pages differs from the phrase in the first printing: instead of "For a land so fair" in the first printing, the words in the music pages are "That we're far from there" (words which had meaning in 1918, when the song was composed). The music pages also contain a pencil note in Irving Berlin's handwriting: "Ted--What do you think now. I" ("Ted" was Ted Collins, Kate Smith's manager; "I" is Irving Berlin's initial.) [This short quotation appears to be the only writing on these music pages in Berlin's hand.] The music pages, accompanied by a letter from Collins and an explanatory note, were offered for sale in 1987 by a dealer, Jerry Williams, Tampa. Fla.; copies are at JF.

Photos of the manuscript (part) and printer's proof (first page) are HERE. Kate Smith's recordings, which are without the opening verse, are HERE and HERE (later live version).

~Masato

---

Messages from multiple threads combined. Messages below are from a new thread. For complete lyrics, see above.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Question: God Bless America
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 12:19 AM

When the Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sings God Bless America at the Yankee games, he sings an introduction before the song. The recording by Kate Smith has no introduction. My wife seems to think that there is more than one stanza to the song. I think that there is only the introduction as sung by Tynan and the one stanza we all sing. Who is right ?

Subject: Info: God Bless America (with verse)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 12:47 AM

Copyright 1938-1939, renewed 1965-1966, Irving Berlin.

Lyrics at http://ingeb.org/songs/godbless.html

Introductory verse and one verse, often repeated.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 09:02 AM

God bless America: Patriotic Melodies (Library of Congress), with sound recordings by Kate Smith, U.S. Air Force Concert Band, and Virginia Grand Military Band.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Blackcatter
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 10:12 AM

Interesting that the song is so short. Kind of funny when you think we typically only know the first verse to many patriotic songs.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 03:52 PM

What is a 'preamble' or 'introduction' called that's sung - not recited- before the verse? There are a lot of songs like that- off hand, I think of 'Little Green Valley'. That is what God Bless America has. It is a separate tune, almost dirge like.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: GUEST,Blackcatter
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 04:05 PM

The intro to songs was common in the 20s - 40s music.

Songs that I sing which have them:

Old Man River
I Get a Kick out of You
Foggy London Town
Feed The Birds (Mary Poppins)
Liitle Girl Blue

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 04:47 PM

But what is the proper name for that phenomenon?

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Jun 04 - 10:45 PM

You can hear Irving Berlin himself leading an audience singing GOD BLESS AMERICA as the finale of a concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of ASCAP, which took place in San Francisco 1940. It was a truly remarkable concert, involving the participation of many popular composers, some of whom rarely appeared in public: Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Sigmund Romberg, Irving Berlin, Albert Von Tilzer, Johnny Mercer, George M. Cohan, W.C. Handy, Harold Arlen, and others. There's a 3-CD set of that concert called "Carousel of American Music," Music & Arts CD 4971, 2000. There are sound samples at Barnes & Noble.

A sound sample from another album called "The Musicality of Berlin" has Shezwae Powell singing the little-heard introductory verse. This too is at Barnes & Noble.

Subject: RE: lyrics/music ~~ God Bless America
From: Blackcatter
Date: 11 Jun 04 - 01:17 AM

Ebbie - I think it's just called the introduction.