This is a short I produced, adapted from THIS IS THE ARMY. Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" by Irving Berlin. The great Warner Bros. orchestra conducted (not on screen) by Ray Heindorf.
In 1939 when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England visited the United States, Kate Smith was invited to the State Dinner at the White House for Their Majesties. FDR introduced her to the king and said, "This is Kate Smith. She is America."
I am from Spain and I also cry with this song. Firstly, because of the patriotic emotion it conveys, and secondly, because in my country many years ago the discourse of the cynics triumphed, and any patriotic ideal is ridiculed. I am envious of countries like America where it is still possible to express that sincere emotion. (Google translator).
@@garybrewer1035 I agree with you! I love the Star Bangled Banner, but this song always brings tears to my eyes even as I listen to it now! I often send texts to friends on patriotic days like today, the Fourth of July, with a video clip of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America", and when I do send those texts, my introduction of the song is always "here is the Incomparable Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" I remember I always loved her as a child, and that love has just grown. When Kate Smith US postage stamps came out several years ago, you better believe that I bought some! Thank you Kate! May God Bless America!
Yes indeed! Our nation has been through a lot lately and I can't say enough of how grateful I am to the Lord for His faithfulness in standing beside me and guiding me through all of this turmoil with His light from above. Also, if I may, I'd like to share this with you: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-81c8P1Nt170.html May God bless and have mercy on the United States of America. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
That is my great grandfather Jack Miller conducting 🫶. I have so many fond memories of my grandmother Dorothea telling me stories about he and Kate Smith and her memories growing up. I met him once when I was about 4. I believe he was 93 at the time. As a composer, I'm very proud of this family legacy.
as a child n the 30s, I remember my father and m uncles standing at attention by the radio when that powerful voice sang “God Bless America “. God bless Irving Berlin as well!
The only version I ever heard that makes me feel so emotional about America. It's a prayer asking God to help America because she is not perfect and we know it's going to be hard but the imagery of our landscape cheers us up. America is going through an unprecedented dark time in our nation's history. We will prevail from this pandemic!
Beautifully written pru6er. I hope this passage becomes prolific. We the people will prevail through these dark times. Stay safe, strong, and always optimistic!
This song will always make me cry. We sang this in school when I was a kid. I hadn't heard it in years and one day as an adult I heard it and bawled my eyes out. My grandparents were immigrants and they loved this song. Stay safe.
MarkSentMe when I was in school there was a Nun with a God given beautiful voice that would sing this song every morning. Then we would all recite The Pledge Of Allegiance and My Country Tiss Of Thee! Sweet Land Of Liberty.
What a unique and beautiful voice. You just don't hear singing like this anymore and if you do it's rare. The ones that sing now do not have unique voices. They all sound alike. Kate was an awesome singer.
Unfortunately, Kate Smith became a victim of the cancel mob. She recorded some songs that activists deem racist now. One was a parody "That's Why Darkies Were Born" that was actually to protest against the bad treatment of black people. The other song was for a movie soundtrack. That was not good enough for the freak activists out there.
My heart swells with pride whenever I hear her singing this song! It's a shame our "cancel culture" has banned Her music for something she may or may not have said 90 yeas ago. If We erase our past....We are destined to repeat those mistakes in the future. We were back then and still are today...."One Nation...So Blessed by God....INDIVISIBLE...With Liberty and Justice for ALL." It is as much YOUR Country as it is MINE....God Bless You ALL and GOD BLESS AMERICA!
just gotta say i didnt know about this until now and i looked it up and its pretttyyyy bad. its really bad. i cant tell you the name of the song i listened to because its name is quite literally a slur and my comment will get deleted but you can find it on youtube. Woody Guthrie wrote "this land is your land" as a critique to God Bless America and specifically kates recording of it, and he championed equality and non racism, so its not like these ideals werent around at the time. This anthem does give off a bit of an american exceptionalism vibe and that sort of culture has done an untold amount of damage to not even just the american people, but also the rest of the world too. Just to be clear im not saying hate the song or kate smith for that matter but its okay to critique things, its most especially of all IMPORTANT to critique things that matter alot, like our national anthems. Also for all the reasons previously stated this land is your land is the best anthem we've gotten yet, unfortunately a lot of the message is lost, especially because we dont give the full version to kids so most people literally dont know what its actually about
She could belt out a song like no one. My Dad a WWII Veteran and a Hero in my book along with many other Heroes LOVED hearing this woman sing. These men and women may they 🙏 REST in PEACE 🙏 knew what FREEDOM is.
Speaking from a 16 year old’s point of view, I cannot understand why other people my age don’t love this country. This country is the greatest country on earth, and me, and others like me will stand beside her and guide her until the day we die🇺🇸
AtomSea03, you are a great American! Wonderful to see a teen who loves our country, and the day may well come when we will all have to fight for our freedom in our Homeland. I stand with you, and we will be prepared to fight ! Godspeed! NO SURRENDER, U.S.A. 🇺🇸
Thanks to the Philadelphia Flyers for bringing her back. Screw Flyer management for taking down her statue. It's not her fault that the men of Philadelphia aren't the men they are supposed to be.
I remember hearing this song sung by Kate Smith when I was about 4 years old-in 1950. I will always remember how proud I was of America even at that young age. No one else will sing this song like her. At this point in time I PRAY it will always be heard by generations to come!
It's the young people of today who have ruined America, this also started in 1990 when parents stopped raising the kids the way it was done for over 150 years, no discipline, no respect and no interest in the past or the right thing to do, now were left with radical democrats and leftists who don't care about anything good anymore just make everyone hate one another and this country and everything it stands for! This is a stated proven fact and only the good and decent people left on this earth realize this!!!!!
I agree. I remember when I was in school, the class stood,and saluted our flag and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we sand one of the many beautiful patriotic songs which we had committed to memory. I still get goosebumps when I see Old Glory waving in the sky above. The young are not learning American history in school, in fact, the books are being re-written and watered down. They are being cheated of their education. Our tax money is being wasted.
@Nomo I hate when people you complain to about things that are bad in your life or with people or this world they tell you either they can't help you that it's your problem or they say keep your mouth shut nobody wants to hear it!!!!!
It really true many people today are very unconcerned about you or people they know and after a while have no feelings about anything legitimately bad that's happening in someone's life,they either ignore you or try to get you to stop complaining or they don't want to associate with you anymore, regardless of how good you have been to them. What the hell is going on now are we civilized or are we becoming animals?????!!!!!
In the days immediately following 9/11, I would frequently turn to Kate’s version of this song. It always brought a tear to my eye. I have returned to it over the last few months to remind myself that we’re Americans and if we stand together we can accomplish anything.
I am an American Sikh who has studied abroad in France, traveled to a number of foreign countries and who has been blessed to count people of many cultures and religions as dear friends. Kate Smith singing this eve of World War Two version of the hymn, God Bless America, touched me profoundly, expressing my love of country that is consistent with a love of people, cultures and countries everywhere. God bless America and our brothers and sisters the world over!
As an American as a veteran as a child of God we need to hear this more and more we need this song in our hearts in our lives we need to hear it more it is a blessed song We also need our kids and our grandkids to hear this more as times get rough
@donnamoore3347 Amen Donna! Amen to That! We should make schools teach these songs to our kids. I loved patriotic songs, and this one of my favorite of all of them, and I learned it as a child in school
Thanks for sharing! Irving Berlin wrote " God Bless America " in 1918 for his soldier show Yip Yip , Yiphank . However , it was withdrawn and lay unused until Kate Smith asked Berlin for a new patriotic song to sing on the radio for Armistice Day , 1938. It became an instant hit . The poem " America the Beautiful " by Katherine Lee Bates , a professor of English at Wellesley College , was inspired by a 1893 visit to Pike's Peak . It is unknown who joined it with Samuel Augustus Ward's hymn Materna , composed in 1882. Both songs have been suggested as alternatives to " The Star Spangled Banner " as our national anthem , for they celebrate America's great assets -- its natural beauty and its people . Thought you might enjoy some musical history ;)
Thanks. And, of course, there was the lyric change from "to the right" to "through the night". If Berlin hadn't changed that, the song, along with Kate Smith, would also be canceled!
I first heard this song when I was a toddler. I haven't heard it in decades. But now here I am in my 70s,, And I'm listening to it over and over, with my eyes tearing up.
Kate Smith brought out our patriotism! She makes us think about what a beautiful country we have wrought, only by God's Divine guidance and protection. Kids in elementary school should hear these old patriotic songs of their great-grandparents! I remember standing for The Star Spangled Banner in 1958 when I was 6 years old. Chills of pride for our country coursed down my spine! Our first grade teacher, Mrs. Rema Barber, had us all sing "The Battle Hymn of The Republic", after the pledge. THAT WAS AMERICA! Parents, raise your children up to be patriots, and trust in the Lord, our Protector! Amen.
From a 20 year old Generation Z American I can say THIS is my America! The politically correct shall never destroy her. We will carry the torch forward.
I'm sitting here crying July 4th 2021 , I love how she sings ❤ This is the best song ever about our dear Country. God save our Nation from the evil ✝️🙏🏻😢🙏🏻✝️😢♥️🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲😢
This is one of my very favorite patriotic songs. All 4 of my grandparents immigrated from Mexico in 1914 and 1921 and had all their children here. Every one of them went to public schools, some went to college and most we're successful entrepreneurs successful. I had/have many many uncles and cousins who served in WW2, Vietnam, Iraq and my son in Central America, fighting drug war and training their military and law enforcement. I teach my grandsons the way I was taught, to love and serve our country. My 4 yr old grandson thinks God Bless America is a lullaby, because I sing it to him all the time. There's my rant. Sorry, not sorry 😁 God bless our Military and Law Enforcement and keep them safe. God Bless America!!!
1943: After the pounding America and the Allies took in 1942, the country needed this; a song of power and strength and confidence which Irving Berlin wrote and Kate Smith delivered with the full WB studio orchestra and chorus. It also saved the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team during the 1970's. Originally recorded on Victor in 1939.
NO AUTOTUNE !!! ....PURE Talent, BEAUTIFUL SONG, & CLASSY SINGER UNLIKE TODAY'S "SINGERS" !!! THANK YOU for This PATRIOTIC VIDEO !!! I came to the US as 6 yr old green cardholder & later became a Naturalized Citizen. I feel SO BLESSED & ALWAYS APPRECIATIVE of OUR COUNTRY, OUR FREEDOM, & HISTORY, ETC. I MISSED THE OLD USA ...BUT LET'S NOT GIVE UP ON OUR COUNTRY ...EVER !!!!!! I was SO MOVED & TEARED UP ... THINKING, APPRECIATING, & BEING GRATEFUL to ALL PEOPLE & VETERANS who fought for OUR FREEDOM & OUR COUNTRY. MAY GOD BLESS & WATCH OVER the USA & the 🌍. GOD BLESS ...EVERYONE. 😇
How wonderful. Big skies, Big oil, Big hearts. We need this so much and prayerfully we ask again for His blessing, and confess our errors. our sins, our misdeeds.
Kate Smith son this song so beautiful every time I hear this song it stirs an emotion in my heart. I am saddened ed by the direction this country is going but hearing this song my spirit and the spirit of this country that there is hope. God bless America 🇺🇲
When she sang it in 1940s during World War 2 the entire country became a stand still? Moms sending her boys to fight against the Axis fascist. Our boys all over the country and overseas would cry and feel homesickness. But to me born 21 years later in December 1966.
There's nothing I can really add, the comments below say it all. But when they made the announcement a little while ago I rehung my flags and looked for Kate Smith singing this. I've never heard the introduction before , it makes it that much more meaningful. Let's hope we can ALL sing this with pride again.
Thank you so very much for this recording. Miss Smith , like John Wayne, spurred our great country to rise to the challenge in fighting the worst war in history. This song is truly inspirational, and may Americans always place the Lord and King of the Universe first in our hearts. Much needed today. God Bless and strengthen our valiant Friends in the Ukraine. 🇺🇦 NO SURRENDER, U.S.A. 🇺🇸
What's interesting about JW is that he never served in the military during WW2. I think that this may have haunted him which might explain his stance later in life.
I have to make a lot of cross country trips. When I finally get to the other coast I am exhausted, but I always listen to Kate Smith at the end of the drive. God Bless America!
This is inspiring. Best rendition. Now see/hear Kate sing The Lord's Prayer. She performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show, 1968. That, too, is awesome; breathtaking delivery.
I'm an athiest and I still appreciate this song. I hate how so many ignorant people want to erase history just because it somehow "offends" them. Have a spine and grow up! Trying to rewrite history will not help anyone. It will only create more division and chaos. Modern American society was built because of our history. We can't be better than our ancestors if we don't learn from the mistakes they had made.
