Editing Irving Berlin (section)

===="God Bless America" (1938)====
{{main|God Bless America}}

{{quote box|align=right|width=25em|bgcolor = Cornsilk|quote=The song's introduction at that time enshrines a strain of official patriotism intertwined with a religious faith that runs deep in the American psyche. Patriotic razzle-dazzle, sophisticated melancholy and humble sentiments: Berlin songs span the emotional terrain of America with a thoroughness that others may have equaled but none have surpassed.|source= — ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name="NYT-87">[https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/10/arts/pop-view-irving-berlin-s-american-landscape.html's%20American%20landscape "Pop View; Irving Berlin's American Landscape"], ''The New York Times'', May 10, 1987</ref>}}

The song was written by Berlin twenty years earlier, but he filed it away until 1938 when [[Kate Smith]] needed a patriotic song to mark the 20th anniversary of [[Armistice Day]], celebrating the end of [[World War I]].<ref name=Corliss/> Its release near the end of the [[Great Depression|Depression]], which had by then gone on for nine years, enshrined a "strain of official patriotism intertwined with a religious faith that runs deep in the American psyche," stated ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name="NYT-87"/>

Berlin's daughter, Mary Ellin Barrett, states that the song was actually "very personal" for her father, and was intended as an expression of his deep gratitude to the nation for merely "allowing" him, an immigrant raised in poverty, to become a successful songwriter.<ref name=interview>{{YouTube|9p-h-Ml-cXU|"Irving Berlin Spotlight Interview"}}</ref> "To me," said Berlin, "'God Bless America' was not just a song but an expression of my feeling toward the country to which I owe what I have and what I am."<ref>Galewitz, Herb. ''Music: A Book of Quotations'', Courier Dover Publ. (2001) p. 4</ref> The ''Economist'' magazine writes that "Berlin was producing a deep-felt paean to the country that had given him what he would have said was everything."<ref name=Economist89>{{cite news |title=Hand on heart. (Irving Berlin) |newspaper=The Economist |date=September 30, 1989 |location= London}}</ref>
[[File:Pentagon Memorial dedication 2008 Crowd.jpg|thumb|Singing "[[God Bless America]]" at [[the Pentagon]] [[Pentagon Memorial|memorial]] dedication, September 11, 2008]]

It quickly became a second [[national anthem]]<ref name=":0" /> after America entered [[World War II]] a few years later. Over the decades it has earned millions for the [[Boy Scouts of America|Boy Scouts]] and [[Girl Scouts of the USA|Girl Scouts]], to whom Berlin assigned all royalties.<ref name=Corliss/><ref name="Smith">{{cite web |url= http://www.tomsmithbigband.com/swing-music-history.html |title=Swing Music History |date=2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100228152825/http://www.tomsmithbigband.com/swing-music-history.html |archive-date=February 28, 2010 |access-date=January 12, 2010 |publisher=Tom Smith Big Band |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=December 2022}} In 1954, Berlin received a special [[Congressional Gold Medal]] from President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] for contributing the song.<ref>video: {{YouTube|ExaNc2GsxB8|"Irving Berlin gets medal from Ike 1954"}}, 1 min.</ref>

The song was heard after September 11, 2001, as U.S. senators and congressmen stood on the Capitol steps and sang it after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. It is often played by sports teams such as major league baseball. The [[Philadelphia Flyers]] hockey team started playing it before crucial contests. When the 1980 [[Ice hockey at the Olympic Games|U.S. Olympic hockey team]] pulled off the "greatest upset in sports history", referred to as the "[[Miracle on Ice]]", the players spontaneously sang it as Americans were overcome by patriotism.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bacon |first=John U. |url= http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/02/19/column-oh-say-can-you-see-a-new-anthem/ |title= Oh, Say Can You See a New Anthem? |date=February 19, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110727114735/http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/02/19/column-oh-say-can-you-see-a-new-anthem/ |archive-date=July 27, 2011 |work=Ann Arbor Chronicle |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://www.espn.com/classic/s/miracle_ice_1980.html "College kids perform Olympic miracle"] ESPN TV network</ref>